Inflation firm, thanks to the fall in energy costs and in particular in petrol prices which offset an increase in other costs, and consumer price index flat in December, the second consecutive month without changes after a slight decline in October. This is what emerges from the macro data of the United States, released by the Department of Labour.
For the whole of 2011 the consumer price index increased by 3 per cent, double the 1,5 per cent recorded in 2010 and well above the 2 percent level that the Federal Reserve considers the maximum tolerable, but the decline in energy and raw material prices leads economists to believe that inflation in 2012 will be contained. The same economists expected a slight increase in consumer prices, which instead remained unchanged in the last month of the year.
Energy prices fell by 1,3 percent in December, for the third consecutive month of decline; in particular, gasoline fell by 2 percent. A rise in the prices of cereals and meats instead pushed up the price of food by 0,2 percent after a decline in November. Housing costs, on the other hand, rose by 0,1 percent.
Finally, positive news for consumers fromtrend of hourly wages in real terms, up 0,2 percent in December from the previous month.
