Economy News
How to read a CPI report without panicking
The inflation number that moves markets is several numbers — headline, core, shelter — and the movements that matter are in the details.
Priya Vaithilingam · February 23, 2026
Economic data as it is published: inflation prints, payroll and unemployment figures, purchasing managers indexes, industrial production, trade balances and central bank decisions. Items give the consensus expectation, the actual figure and the revision history, then note which sectors the surprise reaches first. For anyone reading releases on the day.
The inflation number that moves markets is several numbers — headline, core, shelter — and the movements that matter are in the details.
Priya Vaithilingam · February 23, 2026
The headline growth number gets three vintages and annual rewrites — reading it well means reading the revisions.
Priya Vaithilingam · January 31, 2026