the us inflation measure most closely watched by the federal reserve declined sharply in may official figures showed friday returning to a downward trend after a jump a month earlier the federal reserve recently announced it was pausing its aggressive campaign of 10 consecutive interest rate hikes to tackle inflation in order to give policymakers more time to assess the strength of the us economy the personal consumption expenditures pce index measure of inflation declined to 38 percent yearonyear in may a significant drop from 43 percent a month earlier the commerce department said in a statement much of the slowdown was due to a sharp drop in energy prices and food prices to a lesser extent but core pce excluding volatile food and energy prices fell only slightly to an annual rate of 46 percent from 47 percent a month earlier indicating that inflation remains stubborn in many areas services inflation remained high while goods inflation rose by a much smaller amount on a monthly basis pce rose by 01 percentage points slightly above the median forecast of economists surveyed by briefingcom