U.S. inflation further cooled in March, with the consumer price index (CPI) increasing 2.4% and beating economists’ expectations.
On a month-over-month basis, prices declined 0.1% in March, marking the first time monthly CPI prices have fallen since May 2020, according to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released Thursday. The CPI fell largely in part to a decline in energy prices, which fell 2.4% in March, the BLS reported.
The report comes just one day after President Donald Trump announced a 90-day “pause” on some massive tariffs that some experts have warned could potentially drive prices higher.
“Promises made. Promises kept,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday in a post on X in response to the March CPI report.
Trump issued several executive actions aiming to bring down the cost of living for American households, including signing a presidential memorandum in January calling for “emergency price relief” to be delivered to Americans. The president introduced a Jan. 20 “Unleashing American Energy” executive order which he claims will “restore economic prosperity” in the U.S., “including for those men and women who have been forgotten by our economy in recent years.”
Still, many Americans have expressed dissatisfaction with Trump’s handling of the economy thus far in his second term, with the majority of voters, 54%, disapproving of Trump’s early job performance on the economy, while only 44% approve, according to an NBC News poll released March 16.
Moreover, a majority of voters, 72%, think Trump’s tariffs will hurt the U.S. economy in the short-term, while a smaller majority, 53%, think the tariffs will hurt the U.S. economy in the long-term as well, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll of registered voters released Wednesday.
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