President Biden and his aides have already given up any expectation that the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates several times before the November election.

But their hopes of at least one pre-election cut appeared to be helped on Wednesday, when the Consumer Price Index showed unexpected progress in the fight to tame inflation.

Prices are still growing faster than the central bank would like. After falling steadily through 2023, the national inflation rate spent the start of the year stalled at a level that is still hotter than the Fed’s target.

But new data released on Wednesday morning showed price growth cooled slightly in May, data that cheered markets and set off a new round of Mr. Biden’s allies calling for the Fed to commence cutting rates.

“Today’s release was welcome news that inflation is cooling, and data last week showed a stable and strong job market. Now it’s time to make sure the benefit of that is reaching American families,” Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, a Democrat and the chair of the Joint Economic Committee, said in a release.

“The Fed has made it clear that it isn’t ready to lower interest rates,” he added. “But unnecessarily high rates are holding back small business growth, hurting workers, and worsening the housing crisis. It is time for the Fed to lower interest rates before it causes irreparable harm to the U.S. economy.”