Finance — US to revise key PCE inflation metric, likely lowering rate by 0.2 points

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis plans to alter its calculation method for the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, a move expected to lower the core inflation rate by an estimated two-tenths of a percentage point. The revisions, affecting the measurement of software, investment management, and legal services costs, will be implemented with the August data release on Sept. 30 and applied retroactively. The change to the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge comes at a critical juncture for monetary policy decisions.