As expected, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation was benign in data released on Friday.

Core PCE prices rose 0.1% in April from March, according to the BEA. That was in line with consensus. The unrounded print, 0.116%, was among the coolest readings since 2020.

Although certainly welcome, the favorable print wasn’t a surprise. CPI and, more germane for PCE prices, PPI, were auspiciously soft for April. A cool read on the BEA’s measure was a foregone conclusion.

On a YoY basis, core price growth was 2.5%, the coolest since March of 2021 and more or less mandate-consistent for the Fed.

Headline PCE price growth also ran 0.1% MoM. The YoY print there was just 2.1%, below consensus. The so-called “supercore” measure — services prices excluding housing — rose 3% in April from the same month last year. That’s still too warm, but it’ll work.

Scoff as you will — and with the usual caveat that the price level shock from the pandemic and the war will continue to haunt Main Street — inflation’s tamed in the US. At least when inflation’s defined as the 12-month change on an index purporting to measure prices for goods and services people regularly purchase.

Of course, this is all old news in the context of Donald Trump’s tariff soap opera. But for whatever it’s worth, price stability was restored as of spring 2025, which is to say four years after inflation took off. (Insert your favorite “transitory” joke.)

Friday’s BEA release also showed personal spending rose an as-expected 0.2% last month. Real spending managed a small gain against expectations for no change.

Personal incomes grew 0.8%, more than double the expected increase and the saving rate jumped 0.6ppt from March to 4.9%, the highest in a year.