Economic News Today

This morning, the Federal Reserve said that industrial production fell 0.3% last month. Also, the gain for December was revised to 0.6% from 0.8%. Most of the decline for January came pinned on lower output from utilities because of unseasonably warm weather.

The best news this morning is that retail sales grew by a healthy 0.4% in January. This comes on top of a 1% rise in December. Actually, I would say the December figure could be the most impressive news item of the day. I don’t know how long it will last, but consumers have been in a good mood.

The inflation report was a big surprise. Consumer prices rose 0.6% last month. Annualized, the increase was 6.81%. That’s the biggest increase in four years. It’s not all about gasoline prices, because the core rate was also elevated. For January, the core rate rose by 0.3%. Annualized, that comes to 3.76%. That’s the highest rate in 11 years.

Posted by on February 15th, 2017 at 1:13 pm


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