U.S. consumer prices were unchanged in November, the best performance since prices actually fell eight months ago. The docile inflation reading reflected a big drop in the cost of gasoline and other energy products.
The Labor Department said Wednesday that the unchanged inflation reading last month followed a 0.3 percent jump in prices in October. It was the lowest reading since consumer prices actually fell 0.1 percent in March. Core inflation, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, rose 0.2 percent in November.
Over the past 12 months, consumer prices have risen 2.2 percent and core prices are also up 2.2 percent. That performance is close to the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target for annual price gains and indicates that inflation remains well-behaved.
The Federal Reserve meets next week and the expectation is that the central bank will boost its benchmark rate for a fourth time this year. The Fed has been raising rates to make sure that the lowest unemployment in nearly five decades does not start pushing inflation higher. President Donald Trump has sharply criticized those rate hikes, calling them a threat to the economic recovery and unnecessary since inflation has remained low.
While there is a wide expectation the Fed will go ahead and raise rates again in December, it had projected another three rate hikes in 2019. But given recent comments by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and other Fed officials, economists say the central bank may be contemplating fewer rate hikes next year, given that inflation has stayed low and there are signs that the economy is slowing.
For November, energy prices dropped 2.2 percent after a 2.4 percent jump in October. Energy prices have been falling sharply over the past month, reflecting sharp declines in global oil prices which have plunged from $75 per barrel in early October to near $50 per barrel currently.
The nationwide average pump price for gas is $2.41 currently, down from $2.69 a month ago, according to motor club AAA. That is the lowest price of this year with pump prices at their lowest points since mid-December of last year. The sharp fall in global crude oil has prompted the oil cartel OPEC to plan production cuts to boost prices.
Food costs edged up 0.2 percent in November, a modest gain that left food costs just 1.4 percent higher than a year ago.
New car prices were unchanged in November and up only 0.3 percent over the past 12 months. Used car prices have been rising faster, up 2.4 percent in November and 2.3 percent higher than November 2017.
BEIRUT (AP) — The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday.
The repatriation was the largest Washington has carried out from the camps to date, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. Five of the 11 citizens brought back were children, and one non-U.S. citizen child -- the 9-year-old sibling of one of the other children -- was also brought with them.
As part of the same operation, the U.S. facilitated the repatriation of 11 other camp residents, eight of them children, to Canada, the Netherlands and Finland, the statement said.
Although the pace of repatriations has picked up -- neighboring Iraq recently returned hundreds of its citizens -- many countries remain reluctant to bring back citizens from the al Hol and al Roj camps, which now hold about 30,000 people from more than 60 countries, most of them children.
The camps are run by local authorities affiliated with the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF and its allies, including U.S.-led coalition forces, defeated the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019, ending its self-proclaimed Islamic “caliphate” that had ruled over a large swath of territory straddling Iraq and Syria.
Human rights groups have regularly reported on what they describe as inhumane living conditions and abuses in the camps and in detention centers where suspected IS members are housed.
“The only durable solution to the humanitarian and security crisis” in the facilities “is for countries to repatriate, rehabilitate, reintegrate, and where appropriate, ensure accountability for wrongdoing,” Blinken said in the statement.
FILE - Kurdish forces patrol al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the Islamic State group in Hasakeh province, Syria, on April 19, 2023. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)
FILE - Women shop in the marketplace at al-Hol camp, home to families of Islamic State fighters, in Hasakeh province, Syria, on March 31, 2019. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)
