The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, the so-called PCE price index, vaulted again in November, this time hitting its highest level in nearly four decades and delivering a fresh data point reinforcing the persistence of inflationary pressures.
The Commerce Department reported on Dec. 23 that the headline Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index rose by 5.7 percent in the 12 months through November. That’s a higher pace of inflation than the 5.1 percent logged in October, which was the highest since 1990, and nearly three times higher than the Fed’s inflation target of 2 percent. It’s also the highest level since July 1982, when PCE inflation hit 5.8 percent.
