The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday, Dec. 23, edition that the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of prices fell last month, another sign that inflation is easing. An Associated Press dispatch to The Globe reports that Friday's report from the Commerce Department showed that U.S. consumer prices slid 0.1 per cent last month from October and rose 2.6 per cent from November, 2022. The month-over-month drop was the largest since April, 2020. Core inflation last month rose 0.1 per cent from October and 3.2 per cent from a year earlier. The numbers show somewhat more progress against inflation than economists had expected. Inflation is steadily moving down to the Fed's year-over-year target of 2 per cent and appears to be clearing the way for Fed rate cuts in 2024. That, in turn, could translate into lower rates on everything from mortgages to credit cards. Rates on loans for cars, homes and other larger purchases tend to track the direction of Fed monetary policy, so when benchmark interest rates are cut in the U.S., consumer costs typically fall and free up more money for households to spend elsewhere. The rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is already dropping.