Reuters
U.S. consumer spending, inflation cool in November
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. consumer spending barely rose in November, while annual inflation increased at its slowest pace in 13 months, but demand is probably not cooling fast enough to discourage the Federal Reserve from driving interest rates to higher levels next year. Slowing economic activity amid rising borrowing costs was also flagged by other data from the Commerce Department on Friday showing a modest gain in orders for locally manufactured capital goods last month. “Consumers are starting to pull back and businesses likely won’t be far behind as the full weight of tighter monetary policy and weaker financial conditions bears down on the economy in 2023,” said Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.
