U.S. consumer spending barely rose in November, while annual inflation increased at its slowest pace in 13 months, but demand is probably not cooling fast enough to discourage the Federal Reserve from driving interest rates to higher levels next year. Slowing economic activity heading into 2023 amid rising borrowing costs was also flagged by other data from the Commerce Department on Friday showing a modest gain in orders for locally manufactured capital goods last month. The U.S. central bank is trying to slow demand for everything from housing to labor as it fights to bring inflation back to its 2% target.
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