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US annual inflation wiped out, deflation looms
AFP - Saturday, February 21
WASHINGTON (AFP) - - With the US economy in recession for more than a year, annual inflation disappeared in January in the weakest reading in more than a half century, data showed Thursday, stoking deflation concerns.
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The Labor Department reported that the consumer price index (CPI) for last month was unchanged from January 2008 under the effect of a precipitous fall in energy prices from July record peaks.
It was the weakest annual inflation reading since August 1955, the department said, and came as wary consumers curbed spending in the face of sharply rising unemployment and the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Consumer prices for all of 2008 had been virtually flat, a mere 0.1 percent rise in December from a year ago, the smallest calendar year increase since 1954, highlighting plummeting consumer demand. In 2007 inflation had stood at 4.1 percent.
On a monthly basis, the Labor Department said CPI rose for the first time in six months, by 0.3 percent in January, matching most analysts' forecast.
The monthly CPI headline number had fallen 0.8 percent in December. The last time it climbed was in July, by 0.7 percent, when crude oil prices hit all-time highs above 147 dollars a barrel.
Core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2 percent in January from December, when it was flat. The number was slightly higher than analysts' forecast of a 0.1 percent rise. On a 12-month basis, core inflation was up 1.7 percent.
The Labor Department report pointed to risks of deflation, a pernicious downward spiral of falling prices, earnings and economic activity that is difficult to counter, analysts said.
"The CPI increase in January was driven by a combination of higher gasoline prices and renewed -- albeit modest -- price increases across an array of core goods and services," said Nigel Gault, chief US economist at IHS Global Insight.
"The price rises may allay deflation fears temporarily, but they probably reflect a temporary bounce at the start of the year after severe discounting during the holiday season. Deflation risks remain."
Gault said that demand was too weak to keep the monthly core rate holding at 0.2 percent.
"The incoming evidence suggests that the economy is contracting just as sharply in the first quarter as in the fourth," he said.
The Federal Reserve this week projected the economy would shrink in 2009 by as much as 1.3 percent, following a 3.8 percent contraction in the 2008 fourth quarter.
The January rise in consumer prices was led by increases in energy prices, which climbed 1.7 percent after falling 9.3 percent in December. Energy prices were a hefty 20.4 percent lower from a year ago.
Gasoline prices surged 6.0 percent from December, but were 40.4 percent lower than in January 2008.
Consumer food prices edged up 0.1 percent on a monthly basis and were 5.2 percent higher than a year ago.
Analysts said disinflation, a decrease in the inflation rate, appeared to be the overriding trend, despite a gain in energy prices.
"Disinflationary pressures slowed down with the modest rebound in energy prices. However, inflation should continue to decrease in the coming months, turning negative for most of 2009," said Elsa Dargent, an analyst at Natixis.
Ian Shepherdson, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics, also saw prices continuing to fall as the economy sinks further into the recession that began in December 2007.
"Disinflation pressure is still intense and will stay that way for some time," Shepherdson said.
On Thursday, the Labor Department reported US wholesale prices -- inflation in the pipeline -- rose 0.8 percent in January after five months of decline, driven by higher energy prices, but were down 1.0 percent from a year ago.
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Customers shop at a store in Miami, Florida. With the US economy in recession for more than a year, annual inflation disappeared in January in the weakest reading in more than a half century, data showed Thursday, stoking deflation concerns.
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