-The personal consumption expenditures price index showed a year-over-year rise of 6.3% in July, down from 6.8% in June.
-The reading actually fell 0.1% month over month.
-The core PCE index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, had a 4.6% rise year over year and a gain of 0.1% month over month, coming in softer than forecasts on both counts.
“While the lower inflation readings for July are welcome, a single month’s improvement falls far short of what the Committee will need to see before we are confident that inflation is moving down,” Powell said.
Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic told CNBC’s Steve Liesman that Friday’s report would make him lean slightly toward a half-point rate hike in September, a slowdown from the three-quarters of a point rise the Fed has done in its previous two meetings. However, Bostic did stress that there is more economic data in the weeks ahead that could change his mind.
The PCE reading comes about two weeks after the July consumer price index report, which showed a slower-than-expected rise in prices year over year and 0% inflation on a monthly basis. That report led some Wall Street strategists to say that inflation had likely peaked.
Elsewhere in the report, personal income growth for July came in at 0.2% and consumer spending rose 0.1%. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones were expecting increases of 0.6% and 0.5%, respectively.
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