Yellen: Progress made in fighting inflation

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Tuesday that progress was being made in the fight against inflation U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Tuesday that January consumer price index data showed progress in the fight against inflation even though rising housing costs pushed the index up more than economists had predicted. Yellen focused on the annual CPI inflation figure of 3.1% rather than the surprise 0.3% increase in January. “This morning’s CPI report showed that the headline consumer price index fell to 3.1% in January. That’s six percentage points below the peak in June 2022. At the same time, the recession that many forecasters predicted we would need to see inflation fall has not occurred,” Yellen said. The Biden administration has made “substantial progress in our fight to bring down inflation,” as prices of basic household expenses such as gasoline, eggs and airline tickets have fallen.