TREE NEWS reports: US wireless phone service prices rose 5.9% in August, the largest increase on record, contributing roughly 0.1 percentage point to core CPI, the latest inflation data show. Economists at Bank of America, Barclays and Pantheon Macroeconomics attributed the jump to recent plan changes by major carriers including AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile US Inc. The Bureau of Labor Statistics declined to detail how carrier changes affected the data.
August US Wireless Phone Service Prices Jump 5.9%, Biggest on Record, Lifting Core CPI
AI take
Telecom price resets are now feeding directly into core inflation, which matters because wireless service is a sticky, administered cost rather than a volatile commodity. The named economists' consensus that carrier plan changes drove the move suggests this is a structural repricing, not a one-off. The BLS's refusal to detail the methodology leaves the pass-through opaque. Whether this shows up again in subsequent CPI prints is the open question.
Generated by AI for reference only.
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