‘A Big Step in the Right Direction!’ CNN Economic Reporter Raves Over New Inflation Report

CNN senior reporter Matt Egan, who covers business, the economy, and financial markets for the network, raved about a new Consumer Price Index report suggesting that inflation is cooling shortly after it was published on Friday morning.

Egan dove in after being asked for his thoughts by anchor Kate Bolduan.

“Well, Kate, look, this is some encouraging news on the cost of living, right? Inflation took a big step in the right direction to start the year off,” replied Egan. “So consumer prices up by 2.4% year-over-year. That is an improvement from 2.7% in December that beat expectations which were for 2.5%. In fact, this a new, eight-month low for annual inflation, month-over-month. Prices up by 0.2%, also a step in the right direction, also beating expectation.”

“Now, economists look really closely at core inflation, which excludes food and energy. Core inflation came in at 2.5%. That’s notable because that’s the lowest annual inflation rate for core since March of 2021, before the inflation crisis,” he continued. “Now, while we can’t exclude food and energy from our family budgets, that’s important because economists say that’s a better indicator for where inflation is going. And when you look at the trend for inflation over the last few years, you can see there’s been some improvement, right? It’s been a little bit bumpy on this chart. It’s been bumpy, but it has improved. There was this uptick in inflation starting last spring after the president slapped massive tariffs on imports. Inflation started to go heat back up up to 3%, but thankfully it’s trending back down.”

Egan went on to note that Americans remain concerned about the price of housing, health care, and, most notably, groceries, but he also touted declining egg prices.

“Look at this: egg prices plunging by 34%. That’s the biggest decline for eggs since 2016, back when Obama was in the White House,” he observed. “And gasoline prices, which, of course, was such a major problem for so long, they were down by 8%.”

Watch above via CNN.

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