‘We might need more than a few grains of salt’: Top economists pan inflation report that effectively assumed housing inflation was zero

The government’s long-delayed November inflation report appeared, at first glance, to deliver welcome news: Consumer prices rose only 2.7% from a year earlier, while core inflation cooled to 2.6%, the lowest reading in years. But for many economists, the numbers immediately raised red flags, especially on housing, the single largest component of inflation.

“This is a wacky number,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG, told Fortune. “Shelter costs basically flatlined October by carrying forward September.