Measured consumer price inflation came in at 1¾ percent over the twelve months of 1997, down about 1½ percentage points from the pace of the prior year.
While swings in the prices of food and fuel contributed to this decline, both narrower price indexes excluding those items and broader ones including all goods and services produced in the United States also paint a portrait of continued progress toward price stability. Businesses, for the most part, were able to pay these higher real wages while still increasing their earnings.