The Employment Cost Index, which tracks what employers pay in wages and benefits, rose 1% in the fourth quarter, below the 1.3% reading in the third quarter and the 1.2% analysts expected.

Meanwhile, the personal consumption expenditures price index, also released Friday morning, showed an 0.4% rise in consumer prices, in line with expectations.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell had cited a hot third-quarter reading on the ECI as a reason for the central bank’s pivot toward higher interest rates, in that it suggested broad-based inflation pressure cycling through wages.

In that sense, the softer fourth-quarter reading implies that the Fed need not move as abruptly toward tighter monetary policy as it would if the data showed a spiral of accelerating wage and price increases.