Washington (AFP) - With a slight decline in inflation, rising rents and a rebound in the price of gasoline helped keep consumer prices high in the United States in January, according to government data released Tuesday, indicating that the battle is far from over for makers. policies.

The US central bank has raised interest rates rapidly over the past year to increase borrowing costs and ease demand in the world's largest economy, while inflation has soared.

But even with the consumer price index, an important measure of inflation, falling from last year's levels, which were the highest in decades, the numbers point to difficulties.

As the entire economy feels the effects of central bank policies, the consumer price index rose 6.4 percent in January from a year earlier, according to Labor Ministry data.

The percentage is slightly lower than the figure recorded in December and is the lowest annual increase since October 2021.

But it remains well above policymakers' target of 2%.

From December to January, the consumer price index increased by 0.5 percent, compared to 0.1 percent in December, which indicates that the Federal Reserve still has to move.

The report stated that "the housing-related index was the largest contributor...as it constitutes about half of the monthly increase in all subjects." He added that the food and gasoline indices also contributed.

Excluding volatile food and energy, the core index has increased by 5.6 percent since January 2022, also the smallest increase in nearly a year.

US President Joe Biden said in a statement, "There is still more work to be done as we transition to more consistent and stable growth. We may see setbacks along the way."

He added that the recent data "confirm that we have made historic progress and that we are on the right track and we must complete the task."

While commodity prices have fallen as supply chain disruptions ease, a strong labor market is supporting wages and thus demand.

The basic figure fluctuated during the past months, as it fell to 5.6 percent in June, before rising to 6.6 percent in September and then falling again.

Meanwhile, analysts believe that the Federal Reserve is closely watching the costs of services, except for housing, food and energy.

"Policy makers have more work to do to mitigate inflation towards target and are likely to continue to raise rates and keep policy restrictive for some time," said Rubella Farooqui, US economist at High Frequency Economics.

Fed Governing Council member Michelle Bowman warned Monday that it would be "necessary (most likely) to tighten monetary policy further to bring inflation down toward our target."

She added that in light of the uncertainty associated with the economic outlook, "I expect that we will continue to face surprises due to economic and geopolitical developments and upcoming data."