What To Expect From the Fed’s Preferred Measure of Inflation This Week [Video]

Economists widely expect an inflation report on Thursday to confirm that January was something of a setback in the battle against rapid cost-of-living increases.

Inflation, as measured by Personal Consumption Expenditures by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, likely rose 0.3% in January from December, an acceleration from the 0.2% increase in December, according to a survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires and the Wall Street Journal. Core inflation, which excludes prices for food and energy, is expected to have risen 0.4%, double the 0.2% increase of December.

If those predictions hold, the report would likely confirm the signal from a different measure of inflation—the Consumer Price Index—which earlier this month showed that inflation is proving more stubborn than policymakers at the Federal Reserve had hoped. 

“Unfortunately, we expect a similar performance of these measures as in the January CPI report,” Scott Anderson, chief U.S. economist at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a commentary.

The PCE measureof inflation is especially significant …