The Federal Reserve has hiked the benchmark lending rate seven times last year, with an aim to ease demand as inflation surged, while trying to avoid tipping the world's biggest economy into a recession.
This extends a downward trend since mid-2022, when American households found themselves increasingly squeezed by rising costs. And with the indicator ticking up 0.1 percent from November to December, this could pave the way to a slower pace of rate hikes as officials assess the impact of their policy decisions thus far.
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