On Tuesday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” co-host Sara Sidner stated that the hotter-than-expected January CPI inflation report that showed an increase in monthly inflation for both the overall and core inflation rates from the monthly rate in December with the annual overall rate falling from 3.4% to 3.1% from December while the annual core inflation rate held steady from December at 3.9% is “another sign the economy is getting better and better.” Even though consumers are “really worried about those numbers, especially at the grocery store.”
Sidner said, “This morning, another sign the economy is getting better and better. The first big inflation report of 2024 spelled some good news for consumers. Prices rose by 3.1% for the last 12 months. That’s a slight pullback from December’s rate, but not as much as economists had expected. Remember, prices surged after the pandemic. We all felt it, peaking at 9.1% in June of 2022. The Federal Reserve introduced 11 aggressive rate hikes in its battle to try to bring down those inflation numbers.”
She added that the numbers “are good, not as great as some people had hoped, some economists had hoped, but they are good, and consumers really worried about those numbers, especially at the grocery store.”
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