On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Jose Diaz-Balart Reports,” White House Council of Economic Advisers Chair Cecilia Rouse stated that the January CPI report shows “an economy where we see inflation continuing to ease with a labor market that remains robust” because the month-to-month increases “were at expectations. They were stable. So, it was the same month-on-month increase in terms of core inflation.” And stated that “we’re making the progress we need to see in order to achieve the softish landing where inflation comes down and the labor market remains robust.”
Rouse said, “This report suggests that we have an economy that is resilient, an economy where we see inflation continuing to ease with a labor market that remains robust. So, what we learned today is that inflation year-on-year has come down for seven straight months in a row. The month-on-month increases were at expectations. They were stable. So, it was the same month-on-month increase in terms of core inflation. We did see an increase in headline inflation because gas prices increased in January compared to December, but we can already see in February that gas prices have declined. So, we continue to see that inflation is showing signs of easing. As Chair Powell has said, this is going to be a process. Inflation remains too high, but we’re making the progress we need to see in order to achieve the softish landing where inflation comes down and the labor market remains robust.”
She added, “[I]f we look at inflation in January, which was overall 6.4%, that’s in contrast to 9.1% last June. So, the rate of change of prices has come down. We know, if we look at the headline inflation, as you pointed out, as I pointed out, gasoline prices had accelerated in January. We know that they’re easing in February, they are volatile. That’s largely a result of the war in Ukraine and other global events. If we look at food prices…food at home, grocery prices actually decelerated somewhat last month. The increases were [in] food away from home in restaurants. So, if we look at grocery prices, yes, the price of eggs increased, but at a slower rate [than] they did last month, that’s largely due to the avian flu. When the USDA looks at more granular data for this month, we can see that wholesale prices for eggs are starting to come down. We expect to see that in February’s report. So, we know that this transition is going to be somewhat bumpy, but we’re seeing signs that inflation is starting to ease.”
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