Russell Investments: US Labor and Real Estate Markets May Provide Inflation Limits

BeiChen Lin, an investment strategist at Russell Investments, said before the release of US CPI data that, given the relative balance of the US labor market and the ongoing weakness in the real estate market, there may be limits to the upward inflationary pressure. This senior investment strategist said, "Although we believe that, due to favorable fiscal factors and AI, the economy is likely to accelerate again in 2026, we believe that inflation can still be controlled in the short term in that environment." Lin said that as time goes by, the inflationary impact of tariffs will begin to weaken, as inflation measures the year-on-year change in prices rather than the price level itself. Economists predict that the CPI will increase by 2.7% year-on-year in December, the same as November.