U.S. consumer prices surprisingly fell in April as core inflation over the past 12 months climbed at the slowest rate in 44 years, the Labor Department reported today.
"We do not have any inflation pressure," Ward McCarthy, chief financial economist at Jefferies & Co. in New York, said today in an interview on Bloomberg Radio. "On the international level, there is tremendous price competition."
The Consumer Price Index, the government’s most closely watched indicator for inflation, edged 0.1% lower in April. The index was helped by mostly subdued energy costs. It was the first decline in the CPI since March 2009, and two notches away from a 0.1% increase most economists were expecting, which was the same level reported in March.
Energy costs dropped 1.4% last month, with gasoline prices leading the declines at minus 2.4%. Food prices were up 0.2%. Continue reading U.S. Inflation Rises 2.2% for the Year, Consumer Prices Fall 0.1% in April