WASHINGTON – Today, the Joint Economic Committee released its Monthly Inflation Update for December. The headline Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) remained relatively steady ending at 2.68 percent year over year in December, meeting expectations. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, was 2.64 percent year over year, compared to 2.63 percent in November.

Year over year, food price inflation was 3.07 percent, up 0.56 percentage points, and energy price inflation was 2.30 percent, up by 2.82 percentage points. 

Regionally, from September to November, CPI inflation was the highest in the Northeast (up slightly to 3.3 percent) followed by the West (2.9 percent), Midwest (2.7 percent) and then the South with the lowest inflation of 2.2 percent.

Year over year, real weekly and hourly earnings for all employees increased by 1.07 percent, a 0.57 percentage point increase in weekly earnings and a 0.01 percentage point decrease in hourly earnings (virtually unchanged).

For the full update, visit: https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/republicans/inflation-update

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