According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI data, inflation for 2022 was 6.5%, with the annual rate slowing from 9% at mid-year. Prices increased by 0.8% in January 2023, showing that inflation persists. Three months of price increases at that rate would put inflation above the Fed’s 2% target rate in three months.
Prices tend to increase more in the year’s first half than in the second half. Systematic differences in economic data in different parts of the year are why data are often seasonally adjusted to remove seasonal fluctuations. In 2022, for example, all of the price increases, according to
