US consumer inflation cools to 2.4% in March

US shopper inflation cooled final month on plunging fuel costs, in line with authorities knowledge revealed Wednesday, as shoppers and companies waited nervously for President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs to come back into impact.

The US chief final week introduced levies as excessive as 50 p.c on imports from some international locations, sending inventory markets tumbling and bond yields rising — solely to abruptly change course on all nations besides China on Wednesday.

Forward of the dramatic market actions that accompanied these levies, the buyer worth index (CPI) cooled to 2.4 p.c in March from a 12 months in the past, the Labor Division mentioned in an announcement — decrease than economists’ estimates. On a month-to-month foundation, inflation really contracted 0.1 p.c from a month earlier.

“The index for vitality fell 2.4 p.c in March, as a 6.3-percent decline within the index for gasoline greater than offset will increase within the indexes for electrical energy and pure fuel,” the Labor Division mentioned in an announcement, explaining the slight decline in costs from month to month.

The meals index rose 0.4 p.c in March. Excluding unstable meals and vitality prices, inflation inched up by 0.1 p.c in March from a month earlier, and by 2.8 p.c over the previous 12 months. This was “the smallest 12-month enhance since March 2021,” the Labor Division mentioned. It additionally got here in under the median estimates of economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and the Wall Avenue Journal.