Economic Update

This morning, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report was released for the month of June by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The report reflected an annual inflation rate of just 3.0 percent, and a monthly increase of 0.2 percent. Some major contributing factors to the cooling inflation are the slowing rates of rent, airfare, and food prices. Additionally, on Friday of last week, the BLS released the jobs report for the month of June, reporting on employment and unemployment numbers across the country. This release showed the month of June as having increased by 209,000 total non-farm jobs. The unemployment rate also decreased slightly to 3.6%. Taken together, all three indicators point to a fundamentally strong economy.