The U.S. Commerce Department said on the 20th (local time) that the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index rose 2.9% in December last year from the same month a year earlier. It increased 0.4% from the previous month.
The core PCE price index, which excludes energy and food, rose 3.0% year over year and 0.4% from the previous month.
Except for the year-over-year increase in the core index, which matched expectations, the PCE price index gains released that day exceeded the forecasts of experts compiled by Dow Jones.
The PCE price index is an inflation gauge that measures the prices U.S. residents pay when purchasing goods and services.
The Federal Reserve (Fed), the Central Bank of the United States, uses the PCE price index as the benchmark, instead of the better-known consumer price index (CPI), when assessing whether it is meeting its monetary policy goal of a "2% inflation rate."