WASHINGTON — Year-over-year inflation reached its lowest level in more than three years in July, the latest sign that the worst price spike in four decades is fading and setting up the Federal Reserve for an interest rate cut in September.
The Labor Department report Wednesday showed consumer prices rose just 0.2% from June to July after dropping slightly the previous month. Measured from a year earlier, prices rose 2.9%, down from 3% in June. It was the mildest gain since March 2021.
The ongoing inflation slowdown could affect the presidential campaign, given that Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump highlights rampant inflation as a key failing of the Biden administration and its energy policies. Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris says she will unveil new proposals soon to “bring down costs and also strengthen the economy overall.”
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The government said almost all of July’s inflation reflected higher rental prices and other housing costs, a trend that, according to real-time data, is easing. As a result, housing costs should rise more slowly in the coming months, contributing to lower inflation.
The report showed that inflation is steadily falling closer to the Fed’s 2% target — though not too quickly, which might suggest that the economy is weakening, said Tara Sinclair, an economist at George Washington University and a former Treasury Department official.
“It’s a comforting report, both because it is going in the right direction and because it is not doing anything too dramatic,” Sinclair said. “It is exactly what we