Headline inflation was flat in August despite rising food and energy prices, according to new data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The headline inflation rate remained at stable at 4.1%, with mixed results across the group of OECD nations. Inflation rose in 15 countries, declined in 13, and was unchanged in 10 others, the OECD reported.
For the G7, headline inflation was also stable in the month, coming in at 2.7%, even as price pressures ticked higher in Canada, Germany, and the U.S.
Conversely, inflation fell in Japan, “reflecting a decline in food inflation and an even stronger decline in energy inflation,” the OECD said.
“Core inflation remained the main contributor to headline inflation across the G7 except in Japan,” it added.
For the OECD overall, the stability in headline inflation also came amid rising food and energy prices, which was partly offset by a downtick in core inflation.
The OECD reported that the food prices component rose to 5% in August, up from 4.5% in July.
“In August, food price levels in the OECD were 45.8% higher than in December 2019, before the Covid pandemic, supply chain disruptions and start of the war in Ukraine,” it said — adding that it previously took about 16 years, from May 2003 to late 2019, for food prices to rise that much.
At the same time, energy inflation came in at 0.7% in August, up from 0.3% in the previous month, while core inflation ticked down to 4.3%, it noted.