The Financial Post reports in its Friday, July 12, edition that U.S. inflation decreased in June due to a long-awaited slowdown in housing costs, giving confidence for potential interest rate cuts by Federal Reserve officials. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post reports that the core consumer price index, which excludes food and energy costs, increased by 0.1 per cent from May, marking the smallest rise since August, 2021, according to figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The year-over-year measure showed a 3.3-per-cent increase, which is also the slowest pace in more than three years, based on data released Thursday. Economists view the core gauge as a better measure of underlying inflation than the overall CPI. It fell 0.1 per cent from the previous month, the first decline since the start of the pandemic, primarily due to cheaper gasoline, and decreased 3 per cent from a year ago. The data suggests that inflation is once again decreasing after a spike at the beginning of the year, while overall economic activity seems to be decelerating. After a report last week showed a third straight month of rising unemployment, the data should keep the Fed on a path toward cutting rates this year.