US price surges eased in the third quarter of the year.
A key measure of inflation grew at annualized rate of 5.3% in the third quarter, data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed Wednesday. That compares with an increase of 6.5% in the second quarter.
That’s good news for consumers, but even with the decrease in the personal consumption expenditure index, prices are still very high.
The same report updated the pace of US economic growth between July and September to 2.1% on an annualized basis. An initial report last month said the economy had grown at a rate of 2% last quarter. The little bump was due to strong consumer spending in spite of the high prices.
Even so the economy grew at a much weaker pace in the third quarter than in the three months before when the pace was 6.7%. Over the summer, the growing supply chain challenges, along with worries about the rapidly spreading Delta variant of the coronavirus weighed on the recovery.
