Economists are viewing the delayed November consumer price index report with a dose of skepticism.
The November data release Thursday was delayed by 8 days because of the U.S. government shutdown, but more importantly, the October data was canceled, leaving it to the BLS to make certain methodological assumptions about the prior months’ inflation levels.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the annual headline inflation rate and core CPI rate for last month were 2.7% and 2.6%, respectively, well below expectations.