U.S. inflationary pressures increased in January as the U.S. future inflation gauge rose to 117.9 from a revised 117.4 in December, originally reported as 117.1, according to data released Friday by the Economic Cycle Research Institute.
The smoothed annualized growth rate, a comparison of the latest figures to the preceding year’s average level, decreased to negative 3.0% from negative 4.4%.
The January increase was driven by inflationary moves in measures of commodity prices, jobs, interest rates, and vendor performance partly offset by a disinflationary move in a measure of loans, ECRI said.
“Despite the slight uptick, the USFIG remains close to December’s 31-month low, suggesting that U.S. inflation pressures are still subdued,” ECRI said in a release.