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Oil prices surged through the week before the August inflation reading, and the data delivered the verdict the energy market had been writing: US consumer prices held stubbornly at 3.4%.
The persistence of that figure, against a backdrop of rising energy costs, has put Warsh under mounting pressure to raise rates and concentrated the policy debate.
From a physical-markets standpoint, the timing of the oil surge matters. Energy costs do not arrive in consumer baskets instantly; they feed through transport and goods prices across the months that follow.
A week of sharp oil-price moves landing just ahead of the August print is the kind of sequence that keeps inflation elevated even when other components ease. That makes the 3.4% reading partly an energy story.
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