inflation cooled this winter, but will it warm up in the spring? For Marketplace, I'm Novosopo,

and for David Brancaccio. Later this week, we'll get the latest reading of the Federal Reserve's

preferred inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index. We already have

some encouraging news for January, a separate measure, the consumer

price index rose at a lower than expected pace of 2.4% on an annual basis. But the devil's in the

details sent us out those details were joined by Lauren Seidel Baker of ITR economics. Welcome.

Thank you. So Friday's report, was that encouraging to you?

Yes, it was good that we didn't see a more rapid pickup in inflation, but for the average

consumer out there who might be feeling squeezed by these higher prices, I want to be very clear.

This is not a price trend that prices are going down on an outright basis. This is just saying

that prices are rising by a slower amount than had been expected. So there still is a lot of

strain across certain ends of the income spectrum. But from a policy point of view, yes,

we do like to see that number not going up quite so high.

So a lot of the pullback in inflation on Friday was attributed to lower energy prices.

Gasoline prices are down more than 3%. Other costs, though, are still going up, right?

Yes, and even within the energy segment of inflation, gas prices are down due to where the

global oil market is today,

but electricity costs are much higher due to the electrification of just about everything

and all of that AI investment, the data centers that are sopping up so much energy.

So even within that sector, we could expect to see when oil prices stabilize, there's much more upside,

kind of built in beneath the surface today. Now, the Wall Street Journal was out with a story

that a lot of companies are planning on more price increases due to tariffs after pausing

...