Not surprising that it held relatively steady. November and December 2021 were very low inflation months, so when the 2022 month replaces the 2021 one in the annual data, even just staying flat is relatively good news. The real reductions are more likely to start happening in early 2023.
As it is, we're at about 2.8% annualized inflation over the last 6 months and about 1.7% annualized over the last 5 months. The only real bad news is that core inflation remains high. But to some extent, that can reflect higher energy, transportation, and material costs in preceding months so it can take some time for the lower input costs to be reflected in retail prices.
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