In December, consumer prices (CPI) in the United States decreased by 0.1% compared to November (inflation this month was zero), according to the Ministry of Labour of the country.
Thus at the end of 2015 as a whole, prices rose 0.7% after rising 0.8% in 2014.
Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expected zero growth for the first indicator and for the second a rise of 0.8%.
Inflation in December dropped amid falling oil prices and other energy sources.
Prices excluding energy prices and food (Core CPI) last month rose 2.1% compared to December 2014 and by 0.1% compared to November. The dynamics of the first indicator coincides with the consensus forecast, while the expectations for the second were 0.2%.
Energy in the United States fell 2.4% in December.
Sales of new US homes fell in December by 2.5% compared to November, to 1.149 million in terms of annual growth, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
According to statistical data, in November, the number of buildings increased by 10.1% to 1.179 million, while earlier there was announced an increase by 10.5% to 1.173 million homes.
Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, on average, had forecasted an increase in number of new homes for the last month by 2.3% compared with the previously announced level of November: to 1.2 million.
"While the recovery of the housing market continues, it does not have the strong incentives for which all hoped - believes Milan Mireyn from TD Securities LLC. - It will be a slow forward movement."
The total number of permits for new homes in the US in December fell 3.9% to 1.232 million in terms of annual growth. Economists had expected a more significant decline: by 6.4%.
The number of approved projects for building houses designed for one family, jumped to eight years peak - 740 thousand, while permits for residential construction fell 11.4%.
The number of permits is an indicator of the volume of construction of houses in the near future.
At the end of 2015, total number of new buildings has jumped by 10.8% to 1.11 million, which is the best figure since 2007.