Inflation Report to Show Fed’s Battle Is Now All But Complete

The US inflation outlook was already steadily improving in recent months, but last week, right in the middle of the Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting, the dam finally broke.

Monthly reports on consumer and producer prices published on the mornings of Dec. 12 and Dec. 13 indicated inflation over the last six months — as measured by the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge — has likely returned to the central bank’s 2% target on an annualized basis.