Prices fell in December in the US, in line with a slowdown in inflation

() — For the first time in almost three years, monthly inflation fell in the United States.

Consumer prices decreased 0.1% in December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday in its Consumer Price Index. The last time prices had been lower than the previous month was in May 2020.

Wall Street appears to have celebrated the news, sending stock futures higher.

Closely watched, the inflation gauge also showed annual prices cooling off last month, slowing to 6.5% from 7.1% in November. It is the smallest annual increase since May 2021.

Excluding food and energy prices, which tend to be more volatile, core CPI stood at 5.7%, below the 6% annual rate in November and 0.3% above the last month.

The culprit: the cost of utilities — including home prices — kept rising by as much as 0.4% last month.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said service prices proved difficult to combat.

“Parts of the core index, such as utilities, exhibited inflation stickiness,” Jason Pride, Glenmede’s director of private equity investment, said in a note to investors.

It’s the first inflation report of 2023, and the last before the Federal Reserve meets at the end of the month to determine how aggressively it will tackle rising costs this time.

2022 was a difficult year for Americans. Prices soared during the first half of the year, with inflation reaching 9.1% at its peak in June. Since then, it has been declining.