June 2026 CPI: 3.5% — who called it

The June 2026 CPI print landed at 3.5% year over year. Closest call on the headline: Street consensus. Every forecaster below was on the record before the release and is graded against the BLS first print; signed error = forecast minus actual, so a positive number ran hot. These are the values frozen at grading time — later revisions by any source never touch them.

Headline CPI YoY: actual 3.5%

ForecasterCallSigned error
Nowflation Forecast (ensemble)3.90%+0.395pp
Nowflation Model (in-house)4.03%+0.525pp
Cleveland Fed nowcast3.92%+0.420pp
Street consensus (closest)3.80%+0.300pp
Kalshi market-implied3.81%+0.309pp

Core CPI YoY: actual 2.6%

ForecasterCallSigned error
Nowflation Forecast (ensemble)2.82%+0.221pp
Nowflation Model (in-house)2.87%+0.272pp
Cleveland Fed nowcast2.85%+0.250pp
Street consensus (closest)2.80%+0.200pp
Kalshi market-implied2.82%+0.216pp

Headline CPI MoM: actual -0.4%

ForecasterCallSigned error
Nowflation Forecast (ensemble)-0.08%+0.318pp
Nowflation Model (in-house)0.03%+0.433pp
Cleveland Fed nowcast-0.06%+0.340pp
Street consensus-0.10%+0.300pp
Kalshi market-implied (closest)-0.12%+0.276pp

Core CPI MoM: actual 0.0%

ForecasterCallSigned error
Nowflation Forecast (ensemble)0.21%+0.213pp
Nowflation Model (in-house)0.24%+0.240pp
Cleveland Fed nowcast0.23%+0.230pp
Street consensus (closest)0.20%+0.200pp

Pre-registration receipt

Status locked · written July 7, 2026 11:18 AM ET · release 2026-07-14 08:30 ET. Nowflation CPI Forecast on the receipt: 3.94%. Receipt JSON · all receipts.

The league table — headline CPI YoY, every graded print

ForecasterLive printsLive MAEBacktest printsBacktest MAECombined MAE
Street Consensus430.088pp0.088pp (43)
Cleveland Fed430.106pp0.106pp (43)
Kalshi Market20.181pp0.181pp (2)
Nowflation Forecast20.208pp0.208pp (2)
Nowflation Model20.292pp390.085pp0.095pp (41)

Live = scoreboard rows frozen at grading time, ranked by live MAE. Backtest = the Nowflation Model's vintage-true walk-forward before its first live print (June 2026). Lower MAE = closer calls.

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