Minneapolis (CNN Business)US inflation ticked back up in August, despite plunging gas prices, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Tuesday.
On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose 0.1% from July, according to the Consumer Price Index, which measures a basket of consumer goods and services. Economists had projected that inflation would fall from July to August by 0.1%, after holding steady at 0% growth from June to July.
Annual inflation eased for the second-straight month but also remained stubbornly high, with prices up 8.3% year on year, a slowdown from the
8.5% gain in July and the 40-year high of 9.1% in June. The last time the headline CPI rate declined in consecutive months was the first part of 2020.
Core CPI, which strips out the more volatile categories like food and gasoline, measured 6.3% in August, up from 6.2% in July. The month-on-month gain of 0.6% was double what economists had expected.