Consumer Prices Continue To Fall

Washington, DC,  Dec. 16, 2008--U.S. consumer prices posted a second-straight record decline last month, as falling energy prices and the contracting economy are easing inflation.

The figures included a steep drop in the annual inflation rate to match four-decade lows.

The consumer price index dropped 1.7% last month on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department said Tuesday, the largest drop since the government started compiling the figures in 1947 and well in excess of the 1.3% decline Wall Street economists had expected.

The core CPI was unchanged last month following October's decline, which was the first in more than 25 years.

CPI fell for the fourth consecutive month.

Energy prices plunged 17% in November compared to October. Gasoline prices plummeted a record 29.5%. Food prices, in contrast, climbed 0.2%.

Housing, which accounts for 40% of the CPI index, fell 0.1%, the third decline in four months.