Consumer Price Index showed an acceleration to 2.9%, the highest rate since July. With such high inflation, the Fed is unlikely to cut rates in January.

Entering 2025, models from forecasting companies like Trading Economics anticipate inflation rates between 2.4% and 2.9% between the end of 2024 and the start of 2026. Unfortunately, actually predicting inflation can be difficult, as rates can be affected by a variety of factors, including political climates and supply-chain interruptions.

The Consumer Price Index rose 2.9 percent from a year earlier, but a measure of underlying inflation was more encouraging.

Gas prices rose sharply, but investors homed in on a small decline in the core CPI.

U.S. consumer prices increased by the most in nine months in December amid higher costs for energy goods, pointing to still-elevated inflation that aligns with the Federal Reserve's projections for fewer interest rate cuts this year.

The consumer price index, an inflation gauge, rose 2.9% on an annual basis in December 2024 on the back of higher food and energy prices.

Recently, progress on inflation appeared to be stuck or, at worst, reversing: A closely watched gauge of underlying price hikes — an index that excludes highly volatile categories — hadn’t budged for months.

Consumer inflation increased 2.9% in 2024, which is above the Federal Reserve's goal of 2%, but wages overall more than kept up with higher prices.

According to BLS, natural gas prices in the metro Atlanta area were up almost 15% while gasoline rose nearly 4%, though electricity costs fell 2.1%. The next look at the Atlanta area’s price trends will be published in March.

Consumer price growth ticked up in December, a sign President-elect Donald Trump will inherit the inflation issues that dogged the Biden administration as he re-takes the White House next week.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the consumer price index report for December earlier today. What the inflation data means for the Fed and interest rates.