New Delhi: The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has released the latest CPI data for August 2024. During this period, US consumer prices increased marginally, but core inflation showed some toughness. This may lead to the Federal Reserve not cutting interest rates by half a point in its meeting next week.

The annual inflation rate in the US slowed for the fifth consecutive month to 2.5 percent in August 2024. This is the lowest since February 2021. It was 2.9 percent in July and was below the forecast of 2.6 percent. The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 0.2 percent seasonally adjusted.

Nitin Kedia, founder of Kedia Fincorp, says that the CPI data of August 2024 shows that inflation is coming down. Especially, in the energy and food sectors. But, core inflation is still stable due to shelter and services cost. He said that the effect of softening of inflation can also be seen on the dollar and the rate cut of the Federal Reserve.

In July, the US CPI fell to 2.9 percent and unemployment remained stable. It was 4.2 percent as compared to 4.3 percent in the previous month. Due to this, economic experts are speculating that the US central bank Fed Reserve will cut interest rates by 0.25 percent in the meeting to be held on 17-18 September. Earlier it was expected that this cut could be up to 0.50 percent.

The US stock market also disappointed with the inflation figures. All the major US indices saw a decline during early trading. These include Dow Jones, S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100. The effect of this decline can also be seen on the Indian stock market on Thursday.