Consumer Prices Edge Up 0.1 Percent

Consumer prices barely budged in June, holding inflation in the first half of 1997 at levels unseen on a sustained basis since the mid-1960s.

Cost decreases for clothing, gasoline, air travel and tobacco helped offset higher coffee, vegetable and movie-ticket prices last month. Overall, the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index inched up just 0.1 percent.

Separate reports on business inventory stockpiles and production at the nation’s factories, mines and utilities portrayed an economy growing at a moderate, balanced pace.