CNN business reporter Matt Egan on Friday highlighted an “encouraging” new inflation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Inflation unexpectedly eased to 2.4% for the 12 months ending in January following a 2.7% rise for the 12 months ending in December, according to the BLS. Egan noted on “CNN News Central” that core inflation’s decline to 2.5% was the lowest annual rate since March 2021.
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“[T]his is some encouraging news on the cost of living. Inflation took a big step in the right direction to start the year off. So, consumer prices, up by 2.4% year over year,” Egan said. “That is an improvement from 2.7% in December. That beat expectations, which were for 2.5%. In fact, this is a new eight-month low for annual inflation. Month over month, prices up by 0.2%, also a step in the right direction, also beating expectations.”
“Now, economists look really closely at core inflation, which excludes food and energy. Core inflation came in at 2.5%. That’s notable because that’s the lowest annual inflation rate for core since March of 2021, before the inflation crisis,” he continued. “Now, while we can’t exclude food and energy from our family budgets, that’s important because economists say that’s a better indicator for where inflation is going. And when you look at the trend for inflation over the last few years, you can see there’s been some improvement.”
Inflation reached 9.1% in June 2022 under former President Joe Biden, the highest in 40 years.
Egan pointed to a chart and noted that inflation has had some ups and downs, but that it had generally “improved” since January 2025.
“There was this uptick in inflation starting last spring after the president slapped massive tariffs on imports,” he said. “Inflation started to go heat back up up to 3%, but thankfully it’s trending back down.”
The CNN reporter said that uncooked ground beef had gotten significantly more pricey, along with natural gas end electricity. He said egg prices had plummeted by 34% and gas prices had declined by 8%.
The Friday report followed BLS reporting on Wednesday that the U.S. economy added 130,000 jobs in January, exceeding expectations.
President Donald Trump’s approval on the economy stands at -13.6 points, according to the RealClearPolling average.
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