{"id":2579444,"date":"2026-03-13T09:43:01","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/inflation-fell-to-2-8-in-january-in-feds-preferred-gauge\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T09:45:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:45:23","slug":"inflation-fell-to-2-8-in-january-in-feds-preferred-gauge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/inflation-fell-to-2-8-in-january-in-feds-preferred-gauge\/","title":{"rendered":"Inflation fell to 2.8% in January in Fed\u2019s preferred gauge"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Finflation-fell-to-2-8-in-january-in-feds-preferred-gauge%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2579444&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Inflation cooled to 2.8% in January according to the Fed\u2019s preferred measure, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index, down slightly from December. Month-to-month PCE rose 0.3%, while core PCE was up 0.1% to 3.1% over the year. The report is the last inflation update the Fed will see before its rate decision next week; despite easing, inflation remains above the 2% target, which keeps a pause in rate cuts and a cautious stance in place. The Fed had paused in January after three consecutive cuts and is expected to decide whether to hold the current 3.50%-3.75% target range at the upcoming meeting.<\/p>\n<p>In related context, the government\u2019s latest data show price growth on a broader CPI basis at 2.4% year over year through February, and gasoline prices have surged recently amid geopolitical tensions. The labor market also softened in February,with payrolls down 92,000 and the unemployment rate edging up to 4.4%. Politically, democrats pushed a major housing bill through the Senate to address affordability, tho it faces hurdles in the house, highlighting how economic concerns are shaping the political landscape ahead of elections.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Inflation fell to 2.8% in January in Fed&rsquo;s preferred gauge<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2525061\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/inflation\/\">Inflation<\/a> fell one-tenth of a percentage point in January to 2.8%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in an update to to the personal&nbsp;consumption&nbsp;expenditures&nbsp;index, the&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/federal-reserve\/\">Federal Reserve&rsquo;s<\/a>&nbsp;preferred gauge.<\/p>\n<p>Friday morning&rsquo;s report on inflation is the last one the Fed will receive before it votes on interest rates next week.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/4490912\/hegseth-pours-doubt-ability-new-supreme-leader-mojtaba-khamenei\/\">Hegseth pours doubt on ability of new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/premium\/4471972\/donald-trump-cuba-regime-change-venezuela-iran-marco-rubio\/\">After Venezuelan strongman&#8217;s ouster and Iran strikes, is Cuba the Trump administration&#8217;s next target?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/premium\/4478060\/trump-tariffs-threaten-gop-2026-election-chances\/\">Trump tariffs threaten GOP 2026 election chances<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>The report is directionally welcome news for President&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\">Donald Trump<\/a>, as it shows that inflation is easing. The cost of living and affordability have been top complaints among voters.<\/p>\n<p>It also could lead Fed officials to move more quickly toward cutting interest rates, in order to boost economic activity. <\/p>\n<p><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/4489943\/nine-republicans-one-democrat-housing-bill-votes\/\">HERE ARE THE NINE REPUBLICAN AND ONE DEMOCRATIC &lsquo;NO&rsquo; VOTES ON THE MAJOR HOUSING BILL<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On a month-to-month basis,&nbsp;PCE&nbsp;inflation&nbsp;rose 0.3%.<\/p>\n<p>Core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices,&nbsp;rose a tenth of a percentage point to 3.1%&nbsp;for the year.<\/p>\n<div class=\"infogram-embed\" data-id=\"34d74168-1717-4b41-8c71-5c91fd0cd7cc\" data-type=\"interactive\" data-title=\"Copy: Nov 2025 pce inflation\"><\/div>\n<p><script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(e,n,i,s){var d=\"InfogramEmbeds\";var o=e.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];if(window[d]&&window[d].initialized)window[d].process&&window[d].process();else if(!e.getElementById(i)){var r=e.createElement(n);r.async=1,r.id=i,r.src=s,o.parentNode.insertBefore(r,o)}}(document,\"script\",\"infogram-async\",\"https:\/\/e.infogram.com\/js\/dist\/embed-loader-min.js\");<\/script>    <\/p>\n<p>The Fed&rsquo;s goal is 2% annual inflation, which the Fed hasn&rsquo;t been able to achieve since inflation began taking off in early 2021.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Inflation is still too hot to touch and rate cuts will have to wait until the price pressures cool down a little regardless of what the President is calling for,&rdquo; said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at FWDBONDS. &ldquo;Economy is cool and inflation is hot.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>While the PCE index is the Fed&rsquo;s preferred gauge, it lags other inflation data, including the most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/inflation-ticked-up-to-2-8-in-november-in-feds-preferred-gauge\/\" title=\"... ticked up to 2.... in November in ...s ...\">closely watched inflation metric &#038;mdash<\/a>; the consumer price index. Inflation&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/4487288\/inflation-held-february-affordability-woes-persist\/\">held steady at 2.4%<\/a>&nbsp;for the year ending in February, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-a-struggling-economy-with-soaring-inflation-dollar-stores-are-winning\/\" title=\"In a Struggling Economy With Soaring ..., Dollar Stores Are Winning\">latest data released<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >latest inflation numbers don&#038;rsquo<\/a>;t reflect the increase in gasoline prices brought on by the war with Iran. Gas prices have lurched up nearly 22% in the past month alone, according to AAA.<\/p>\n<p>The central bank voted to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sp-500-nasdaq-futures-rise-as-investors-pin-hopes-on-fed-pause\/\" title=\"S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq futures up on hopes of Fed pause.\">hold interest rates steady<\/a> in January, pausing after cutting interest rates in the previous three meetings.<\/p>\n<p>While the Fed continues to monitor slowdowns in the labor market, it remains attentive to the fact that inflation is still running above its 2% target. The pause comes despite pressure from the White House for the central bank to cut rates.<\/p>\n<p>The Fed&rsquo;s next meeting is set for next week, and it will make a decision on whether to hold its rate target at a range of 3.50% to 3.75%.<\/p>\n<p>The Fed is also closely tracking employment data, particularly given that there has been a gradual decline in job growth over the past year.<\/p>\n<p>The economy&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/4483115\/economy-lost-jobs-february-key-facts-figures\/\">shed 92,000 jobs<\/a>&nbsp;in February, and the unemployment rate edged up to 4.4%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said last Friday. That was a big surprise and not good news for Trump and the economy.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/finance-and-economy\/4489382\/major-housing-bill-clears-senate-faces-conflict-house-gop\/\">MAJOR HOUSING BILL CLEARS SENATE AND NOW FACES CONFLICT WITHIN HOUSE GOP<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Democrats are trying to seize on economic discontent in order to gain back control of one or both chambers of Congress in the November midterm election. If they are able to win, it could hamstring the administration during the second half of Trump&rsquo;s second term.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Republicans are focused on bright spots in the economy. The Senate passed bipartisan housing legislation on Thursday that both parties hope can help with housing affordability, although the bill faces some challenges in the House.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PCE inflation cooled to 2.8% in January<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3360,"featured_media":2579445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AP25344743735329.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[13123,7498,5708,3780,71656],"class_list":["post-2579444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-economics","tag-fed","tag-inflation","tag-january","tag-pce"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AP25344743735329.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2579444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3360"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2579444"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2579444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2579448,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2579444\/revisions\/2579448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2579445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2579444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2579444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2579444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}