US Inflation Beats Estimates for a Fourth Month

For four months many economists have predicted that US inflation would reignite, in large part due to President Donald Trump’s trade war and the knock-on effects his tariffs would have on the economy. But for a fourth month in a row, data released by the Trump administration’s Bureau of Labor Statistics came in lower than expected. The consumer price index, excluding the often volatile food and energy categories, increased only 0.1% from April, according to government data.

The string of below-forecast inflation readings could be attributable to how many of the administration’s threatened levies are on hold. (In early April, Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs managed to destabilize the bond market before he largely retreated.) Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is being floated as a potential replacement for Jerome Powell at the Federal Reserve, credited Trump’s trade policies for slowing inflation, saying he challenged a “decades-old status quo.”