Consumer prices fell in December for the third month in a row, as some analysts raised the specter of debilitating deflation -- a continuing, across-the-board decline in prices.
After falling by 0.7 percent last month, consumer prices ended up increasing by only 0.1 percent during 2008. It was the lowest inflation rate since 1954, the Labor Department reported Friday.
Meanwhile, industrial output at the nation's factories, mines and utilities declined 2 percent in December, the Federal Reserve reported. During the fourth quarter, as credit markets froze and the financial industry nearly imploded, industrial production plunged at an annual rate of 11.5 percent, the steepest quarterly decline since 1980. |