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Retail Prices Fell at Record Rate in November
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Dec 16, 2008 07:39am |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - New York Times |
| News Date | Tuesday, December 16, 2008 01:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By JACK HEALY
Published: December 16, 2008
Retail prices fell at their fastest rate on record in November as oil prices continued to tumble and retailers and auto dealers slashed their prices to woo back anxious consumers.
The Labor Department reported Tuesday that consumer prices fell 1.7 percent in November from the month before, led downward by tumbling energy prices, which fell 17 percent over one month as the demand for gasoline and oil eclipsed.
The core rate of inflation, excluding volatile food and energy prices, was flat.
Meanwhile, new data showed the nation’s housing market continuing to lag. The Commerce Department reported that housing starts fell to a seasonally adjusted 625,000 in November, far below Wall Street’s expectations.
The housing starts in November represented a 18.9 percent drop from the prior month and were 47 percent lower than November 2007.
The slump in consumer prices in November was the second month of declines, following a 1 percent drop in October.
“All the factors which had contributed to the 2 percent-plus core rate in recent years — robust demand growth, the weak dollar and rising commodity prices — are now running rapidly in reverse,” Ian Shepherdson, United States economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a note, “and it is just a matter of time before core inflation starts to head south.” |
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