Inflation was still hot in January, but with some prices cooling off. Monthly prices were largely pushed up by shelter costs. these costs accounted for nearly half of the increase. Higher costs for food, gasoline, and natural gas also contributed.
On an annual basis, food prices are up 11.3 percent, with egg prices up 70 percent year over year. Taking out food and energy, the core CPI index increased 0.4 percent from last month, and 5.6 percent year over year.
But now analysts are also looking at the so-called super-core CPI, which takes out food, energy, and shelter. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has indicated that super-core inflation is a must-watch as well. It rose about 0.3 percent last month and is at 0.27 percent monthly and 6.2 percent yearly.
NTD spoke to Peter Schiff, chief economist and CEO at Euro Pacific Capital and host of the Peter Schiff Show podcast, for his insights.