WASHINGTON – The cost of living in the U.S. fell in April, the U.S. Labor Department said Wednesday, surprising economists who had expected a small increase in prices.
The seasonally adjusted consumer price index fell 0.1 percent in April, the first month-to-month decline since March 2009, and rose 2.2 percent from a year earlier, the government reported.
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Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast a monthly increase of 0.1 percent and an annual increase of 2.4 percent.
The core U.S. inflation rate, which excludes food and fuel, was unchanged in April for a second month, and up 0.9 percent over the previous 12 months – the smallest annual increase since 1966, the Labor Department said.
“There simply isn’t any kind of price pressure of any consequence in the economy,” David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities International Inc., who accurately forecast the decline in prices, told Bloomberg News. “This puts the [Federal Reserve] firmly in place for the foreseeable future.”
In the Northeast, prices rose 2.5 percent in April from a year earlier and 0.2 percent month over month. Regional inflation figures are not seasonally adjusted.
Northeast inflation was led by a 16.2 percent annual gain in energy prices and an 11.5 percent rise in the cost of transportation due to higher gas prices. The cost of food increased 1.1 percent.
