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The Texas economy is slowing while inflation rises, Dallas Fed analysis shows

The exterior of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
Christopher Connelly
/
KERA News
The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas on Pearl Street.

The inflation rate tracked by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas was at 4.7%, up from 4.5% in July.

The Texas economy is slowing while the average12-month inflation rate is rising, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

The Dallas Fed says the inflation rate it uses -- Trimmed Mean PCE -- was 4.7% in August, up from 4.5% in July.

It also said there are signs the state’s economy is slowing, adding in a press release that a “once torrid pace of job growth ground to a halt in August.”

Dallas Fed vice president and senior economist Pia Orrenius was more specific.

“July job growth, month over month, was 7.6% and then we went to zero in August,” Orrenius said. “It was kind of shocking.”

Orrenius also noted firms have been reluctant to raise prices. That could be a sign inflation is peaking.

Despite the Dallas Fed’s recently reduced job numbers, it still projects job growth to exceed 4% for the year. That’s twice the historical average.

In surveys, Texas businesses said they were expecting a more typical economy after last year’s rapid growth and rebound from the pandemic-induced recession. But that’s no longer the case, according to the Fed report.

Got a tip? Email Reporter Bill Zeeble at bzeeble@kera.org. You can follow him on Twitter @bzeeble.

Bill Zeeble has been a full-time reporter at KERA since 1992, covering everything from medicine to the Mavericks and education to environmental issues.