The latest consumer price index (CPI) report showed that headline inflation fell from 5 percent year over year in March to 4.9 percent in April. But that decline was only due to rounding-the actual decrease was just five onehundreds of a percentage point, from 4.98 percent to 4.93 percent. Almost no progress. The news on core inflation was similar.
Core CPI inflation excludes food and energy and is usually a better guide to the underlying trend for prices. Core was up 5.5 percent in April from a year before and has been more or less steady in 2023. It is only a bit down from around 6 percent a year ago.