Prices fell last month for the first time since April 2020

New York CNN —After three-plus years of prices steadily — and sometimes sharply — increasing month after month after month, they fell in November. Last month, for the first time since April 2020, prices fell on a monthly basis, according to a closely watched report released Friday by the Commerce Department. November’s Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, a comprehensive measure of prices US households pay for goods and services, declined 0.1% from the month before, bringing the annual inflation rate to 2.6%. Tumbling gas prices — energy prices dropped 2.7% from October — drove the swing into negative territory, according to the report. The personal saving rate (savings as a percentage of disposable income) ticked higher to 4.1% from 4% the month before.