By Jeffry Bartash
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - U.S. consumer prices were unchanged in November, mainly because of declining energy costs, the Labor Department said Friday. So-called core prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2%, however. The core data strips out volatile food and energy costs. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had forecast CPI to be unchanged overall, with a 0.1% increase in the core rate. Consumer prices have risen an unadjusted 3.4% over the past 12 months, but that's down from 3.9% in June. Yet the core rate has risen 2.2% over the past 12 months, the largest such increase since 2008. Inflation-adjusted hourly wages, on average, fell 0.1% in November, the government said.
