US Consumer Prices Fell 0.3% In November

By Joseph Lazzaro | December 14 2012 9:00 AM

U.S. consumer prices declined in November for the first time in five months, falling 0.3 percent, as gasoline price declines offset increases in other areas, the U.S. Labor Department announced Friday.

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Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected consumer prices to fall 0.2 percent in November, after a 0.1 percent rise in October.

The CPI core rate, which excludes the often-volatile food and energy component, rose 0.1 percent in November.

On a year-over-year basis, inflation ran at a 1.8 percent rate -- well within the U.S. Federal Reserve's "comfort zone" for inflation. That low inflation rate should allow the Fed to maintain its accommodative monetary policy stance of very low short-term interest rates and quantitative easing for at least the next two quarters, and probably for much longer, to help the economy recover from the recesssion.

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