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US core inflation rose 0.1 percent in June

WASHINGTON - Core US consumer prices rose a less-than-expected 0.1 percent in June, showing stable prices that have eased the year-on-year rate of nonfood, nonenergy inflation to 1.9 percent, the lowest in more than three years, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday.

Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting the core price index to gain 0.2 percent on the month.

In the same report, the government said that, in seasonally adjusted data, personal income rose 0.4 percent while personal spending rose a less-than-forecast 0.1 percent, the weakest showing since a drop in spending in September of last year.

Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting personal income to gain 0.5 percent and personal spending to rise 0.2 percent. Personal spending, when adjusted for inflation, was unchanged in June.

Overall prices, as measured by the government’s personal consumption expenditures index, also rose 0.1 percent.

The last time the core PCE price index year-on-year rise was as low was a matching 1.9 percent rise in March 2004. May’s year-on-year core PCE rise was revised to 2 percent.

News of benign price pressure is likely to give comfort to the inflation-wary Federal Reserve, which has held benchmark interest rates steady for more than a year in hopes persistent inflation would ease.

“Core PCE up 0.1 percent month over month should be reassuring to the Fed,” said Camilla Sutton, currency strategist at Scotia Capital in Toronto.

US Treasury debt prices and dollar held steady after the data.

Commerce Department revisions showed that the personal saving rate in 2006 was a positive 0.4 percent rather than a negative 1.0 percent, while in 2005 it was a plus 0.5 percent instead of a negative 0.4 percent.

Personal income was revised higher in 2006, as large upward revisions to interest and dividend income were partly offset by downward revisions to employee pay and income from rents.