Why November's Inflation Numbers Might Be Tricky

John Williams, the head of the New York Federal Reserve, recently talked about how November's inflation numbers might not be entirely accurate. He pointed out that some technical issues messed with the data. Because of problems collecting data in October and early November, the numbers for November might be a bit off, especially in certain categories. This could have made the inflation rate seem lower than it really is.The consumer price index (CPI) showed a 2. 7% annual increase, which was lower than what economists predicted. Williams thinks this might be because the data was mostly collected in the second half of November when there were a lot of sales. This could have skewed the numbers, especially in areas like rent and other categories. Williams did find some good news in the data. He saw that some categories not affected by these issues showed signs of cooling price pressures. This suggests that the overall trend of disinflation might still be happening. The October CPI report was canceled, so the November report didn't have all the usual data points. The Bureau of Labor Statistics had to use other sources to fill in the gaps.