Inflation Holds Steady Ahead of Fed Meeting

Inflation data released on Tuesday showed that price increases remained moderate in November, the latest sign that inflation has cooled substantially from its peak. That’s likely to keep the Federal Reserve on track to leave interest rates unchanged at its final meeting of the year, which takes place this week.

The Consumer Price Index came out just as the Fed begins its two-day gathering, which will conclude with the release of an interest rate decision and a fresh set of quarterly economic projections at 2 p.m. on Wednesday. Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, is then scheduled to hold a news conference.

Central bankers have embraced a recent slowdown in price increases, and Tuesday’s data largely suggested that inflation remains lower than earlier this year. Overall inflation climbed 0.1 percent on a monthly basis, making for a 3.1 percent increase compared to a year earlier. That was cooler than the 3.2 percent annual figure in October.

But some of the report’s underlying details could keep Fed officials wary. After stripping out volatile food and fuel to give a clearer sense of underlying inflation trends, so-called core inflation climbed more quickly on a monthly basis. A closely watched measure that tracks housing expenses also climbed more quickly; that measure is called “owner’s equivalent rent” because it estimates how much it would cost someone to rent a home that they own, and economists have been expecting it to decline.