Cost of Consumer Goods Holds Steady Despite Tariffs
There is little evidence that the tariffs implemented by the Trump administration in February and March are feeding through to inflation just yet.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ metric for goods inflation—the index for commodities, excluding food and energy,—rose 0.1% in April after logging an outright decline of 0.1% in March. While goods inflation has largely been falling outright in recent years, Tuesday’s data showed that prices rose 0.1% compared with a year ago.
That was fueled by prices in areas such as household furnishings, which increased 1% in April after remaining flat in March. The category is more closely watched these days for hints that the effects of higher tariffs are starting to creep into inflation data. Prices of so-called medical-care goods rose 0.4% in April, after logging a monthly decline of 1.1% in March.