Despite the uptick, President Trump is on the warpath for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, a move that would stimulate markets and investment, but that could also push inflation higher.
As tariff-induced inflation threatens to dominate the economic narrative, Trump and Fed chair Jerome Powell headed toward a collision. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that a “formal process” was underway to pick Powell’s successor.
Economists’ expectations for June inflation ranged from a 2.6-percent to a 3-percent annual increase, so the 2.7-percent jump reported Tuesday by the Labor Department lines up pretty squarely with forecasts.
Inflation increased for the second month in a row, up from a 2.4-percent increase in May and a 2.3-percent increase in April.
Taking out the more volatile categories of food and energy, the “core” consumer price index increased less than expected, rising to a 2.9-percent annual increase versus an expected 3 percent. That’s up from 2.8 percent last month.
The Hill’s Tobias Burns takes a deeper look at the June inflation report here.
