U.S. consumer prices rose less than initially thought in December, but the annual revisions published by the Labor Department on Friday also showed the consumer price index increasing slightly more than previously reported in October and November. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.2% in December instead of 0.3% as reported last month, the revisions of the CPI data published by the Labor Department showed. But data for November was revised up to show the CPI increasing 0.2% rather than 0.1% as previously estimated. The CPI gained 0.1% in October, whereas prices were previously reported to have been unchanged in October. The 3-month annualized increase in the CPI was revised up to a 1.9% from 1.8%.
Excluding food and energy, corn inflation rose 0.275% in December, which was rounded up to 0.3%. That was revised down from 0.309%, rounded to 0.3%. Core CPI was revised up to 0.308% in November, rounded to 0.3%. It was previously reported to have increased 0.285% in November, rounded up to 0.3%. The 3-month increase in the core CPI inflation rate was unchanged at 3.3%.
The annual revisions came via the recalculation of seasonal adjustment factors, the model used by the government to strip out seasonal fluctuations from the data. The revision period was data from January 2019 through December 2023. The year-over-year data, which is not seasonally adjusted, was unrevised.
