Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge shows price pressures easing further

A measure of prices that's closely tracked by the Federal Reserve suggests that inflation pressures in the U.S. economy are continuing to ease. Consumer prices were flat from April to May, the mildest such performance in more than four years. Measured from a year earlier, prices rose 2.6% last month, slightly less than in April. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core inflation rose 0.1% from April to May, the smallest increase since the spring of 2020, when the pandemic shut down the economy. The latest figures will likely be welcomed by the Fed’s policymakers, who have said they need to feel confident inflation is slowing sustainably toward their 2% target before they’d start cutting interest rates.