UPDATE - Annual US consumer inflation at 8.3% in August, easing from 8.5% in July

ADDS BIDEN'S COMMENTS

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - Annual consumer inflation in the US was 8.3% in August, easing from the 8.5% yearly gain in July, according to Labor Department figures released Tuesday.

The consumer price index (CPI), which measures changes in the prices of goods and services from a consumer's perspective, came in higher than the market estimate of an 8.1% annual increase.

The figure, however, is a sharp decline from the 9.1% yearly gain in June, which was the largest 12-month increase since November 1981.

On a monthly basis, CPI in August rose 0.1% from the previous month, again coming above the market expectation of a 0.1% decline. CPI in July was unchanged from the month before.

"Increases in the shelter, food, and medical care indexes were the largest of many contributors to the broad-based monthly all items increase," the agency said in a statement.

Those gains, on the other hand, were offset by a 10.6% decline in the gasoline index, it added. The energy index fell 5% on a monthly basis, but the electricity and natural gas indexes rose.

While the food index climbed 0.8% month-on-month, the food at home index increased 0.7%, according to the department.

Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, gained 0.6% in August from the previous month, again above the market expectation for a 0.3% rise. In July, core CPI posted a monthly increase of 0.3%.

Annually, core CPI rose 6.3% in August year-on-year, similarly above the market forecast of 6.1%, after gaining 5.9% in July from the same month a year ago.

"The energy index increased 23.8 percent for the 12 months ending August, a smaller increase than the 32.9-percent increase for the period ending July," the statement said.

However, "the food index increased 11.4 percent over the last year, the largest 12-month increase since the period ending May 1979," it added.

“Prices have been essentially flat" in the US during the last two months, President Joe Biden said in a statement, referring to CPI remaining unchanged in July and rising 0.1% in August. "Gas prices are down an average of $1.30 a gallon since the beginning of the summer.”

“This month, we saw some price increases slow from the month before at the grocery store. And real wages went up again for a second month in a row, giving hard-working families a little breathing room," he added.

Biden said it will take "more time and resolve" to bring inflation down and noted that the Inflation Reduction Act, which took effect Aug. 16, is intended to lower the cost of health care, prescription drugs and energy.