New Delhi, July 14 -- WASHINGTON - Three weeks after the last American missile struck an Iranian radar installation, prices at the gas pump finally moved in the other direction. In June, they fell nearly 10 percent.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday that the consumer price index declined 0.4 percent from May, the steepest single-month drop since April 2020, pulling the annual inflation rate to 3.5 percent from 4.2 percent in May. That is the largest one-month improvement in the year-over-year comparison since early 2024.

Energy drove almost the entire move. The energy index fell 5.7 percent in June, with gasoline alone dropping 9.7 percent. That decline traced to the brief pause in US-Iran hostilities in mid-June, which tempor...