Lower gas costs offset more expensive food and higher rents to keep a measure of U.S. consumer prices flat last month. The Labor Department said Wednesday that food prices increased 0.2 percent in December from November. Rents and airline fares also rose. Gasoline prices fell a seasonally adjusted 2.3 percent.
U.S. wholesale prices fell for the third month in a row in December, propelled by falling food and gas costs. The drop is the latest evidence inflation is tame, which means consumers have more money to spend. Low inflation also gives the Federal Reserve more freedom to keep interest rates low.
Happy New Year! Your life just got more expensive. While congress frets over the looming fiscal cliff and taxpayers brace themselves for higher tax rates, consumers should prepare for certain goods to become pricier in 2013.
The seasonally adjusted consumer price index dropped 0.3 percent in November from October, the Labor Department said Friday. Gas prices fell 7.4 percent, the steepest drop in nearly four years. That offset a 0.2 percent rise in food prices.
American consumers are growing more confident about the job market, companies are ordering more equipment and home prices are rising in most major cities. The latest batch of government data suggests that the economy is improving just as the holiday shopping season begins.
Rising food costs and higher rents offset a drop in gas prices last month, leaving consumer inflation all but flat in October. The consumer price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent, after sharp 0.6 percent gains in the previous two months driven by a spike in gas prices that has since receded.
The price of gasoline fell Tuesday after Hurricane Sandy left a wide swath of flooding, power outages and disrupted transportation in the eastern U.S.
Ample supplies helped send oil prices down to near $85 per barrel on Friday.Benchmark oil for December delivery was down 80 cents to $85.25 a barrel at late afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil hasn't been that low since July 10.
Americans spend a lot of money on oil: about $632 billion a year. And the big oil producers report eye-popping annual profits, like ExxonMobil's $41 billion in 2011. Numbers like that may make you feel like we're getting robbed at the pump ... but it's not that simple.
A disagreement over gas prices and energy policy produced a heated tit-for-tat argument between Mitt Romney and President Obama at the second presidential debate.
Higher gas costs drove up U.S. consumer prices in September for the second straight month. Outside energy, there was little sign of inflation. The Labor Department said Tuesday that the consumer price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.6 percent last month.
The price of oil rose more than 3 percent Tuesday on concerns about supplies from the Middle East and the North Sea.
When gas prices hit $4 at the pump earlier this summer, a lot of motorists were crying Uncle!" They'd be crying all the louder if they realized those first four bucks didn't cover half of it. It's just that the remainder is hidden in your tax bill.
Americans boosted their spending in August even though their income barely grew. Much of the spending increase went to pay higher gas prices, which may have forced consumers to cut back elsewhere.
U.S. retail sales rose in August from July because consumers paid higher gas prices and bought more cars and trucks. They were more cautious elsewhere, suggesting the weak economy has made many selective about spending.