A tug of war between higher non-energy services costs and anticipated reductions in a wide variety of commodities quotes probably left the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) unchanged in February, stemming an energy-induced 1.3% decline over the prior three months (see
accompanying chart).
Net of projected falloffs in volatile food (-0.1%) and energy (-0.5%) components, the core CPI likely edged just 0.1% higher during (2013 jan-2015 jan), after an above-consensus 0.2% increase in January.
Societe Generale notes...
- Our projections, if realized, would place the overall and core CPIs 0.1% below and 1.7% above their respective year-ago levels.
