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[US January CPI Growth Slows to 2.4% Year-on-Year, Core CPI Remains Stable at 2.5%] ⑴ Data released by the US Labor Department on Friday showed that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.4% year-on-year in January, a slowdown from 2.7% in December and below economists' expectations of 2.5%. Core CPI rose 2.5% year-on-year, in line with expectations. ⑵ Two days before this inflation data release, the US announced better-than-expected January job growth, with the unemployment rate falling to 4.3%. The combination of slowing inflation and strong employment presents the Federal Reserve with a delicate balance in the final months of Powell's term: to curb inflation without harming the labor market. ⑶ Since the summer of 2024, the Federal Reserve has cumulatively cut interest rates by nearly 2 percentage points, pausing in January. Friday's inflation report was slightly delayed due to the recent partial government shutdown. The prolonged shutdown last fall created unprecedented obstacles to price data collection; the missing housing cost data for October may have artificially lowered the estimate of last year's full-year increase, but it does not affect recent month-on-month data. (4) Inflation has cooled significantly since briefly exceeding 9% in mid-2022, but persistently high price increases continue to put pressure on consumers. Recent surveys show that prices remain the top concern for the public, and complaints about the cost of living have paved the way for Trump's return to the White House and become a core issue for both parties in this year's congressional elections. (5) Most economists expect inflation to decline further in 2026, with signs indicating that price pressures are easing. Companies such as PepsiCo and General Mills have stated that they are lowering prices on some products to attract budget-sensitive consumers, suggesting that demand may no longer be sufficient to support companies passing on costs. (6) Surveys and financial market evidence show that neither consumers nor investors are overly concerned about a resurgence in inflation. This is reassuring because the expectation of rising prices may prompt people to make purchases in advance or demand pay rises, thus creating self-fulfilling inflation expectations.