White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett praised Thursday’s consumer price index (CPI) report, which showed inflation rose less than expected.
“It was just an absolute blockbuster report,” Hassett told “Varney & Co.”
“Before the numbers come out, we look at the forecast from everybody we can find on Bloomberg. We’ve looked at 61 forecasts, and this number came in better than every single one of them,” he added.
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Hassett continued, honing in on the near-term trajectory. He added that core inflation, when averaged over the past three months and annualized, is running at just 1.6%, which he argued reflects the success of the Trump administration’s efforts to boost aggregate supply and push prices lower.
“We’ve got high growth, and we have core inflation running at 1.6% if you look at the last quarter, and I think that’s about where we should be,” he said.
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“And don’t forget, that’s where we were last time in President Trump’s first term. We were growing in the 3% range, and we had inflation in the 1% range, and it looks like that’s where we are again,” he said.
“I’m not saying we’re going to declare victory yet on the price problem, but this is just an astonishingly good CPI report,” he added.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday that the CPI, a broad measure of how much everyday goods like gasoline, groceries and rent cost, rose 0.2% over the two months from September to November, while it increased to 2.7% on a year-over-year basis.
Both figures were cooler than the expectations of economists polled by LSEG, who projected a 0.3% monthly rise and a 3.1% year-over-year figure.
Core prices, which exclude volatile measurements of gasoline and food to better assess price growth trends, were up 0.3% from the prior month and 2.6% year over year, a figure in line with economists’ expectations.
Consumers, however, are still feeling the pinch of prices as the report indicates a 2.6% increase in the cost of food compared with a year ago. Other areas, such as energy, transportation and housing are also higher than a year ago, per the report.
FOX Business’ Eric Revell contributed to this report.
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