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This story about the September CPI inflation report will be updated with further details.
Inflation accelerated in September as the pace of consumer price growth trended higher due to elevated energy prices.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said on Wednesday that the consumer price index (CPI) – a broad measure of how much everyday goods like gasoline, groceries and rent cost – increased 0.6% on a monthly basis and is up 3.7% from a year ago.
Expectations vs. reality
The monthly figure was in line with the estimates of economists polled by LSEG, while the annual figure came in hotter than the estimate of 3.6%. The monthly data rate picked up following a reading of 0.4% in August, while the annual figure also trended higher from 3.4% the prior month.
So-called core prices, which exclude volatile measurements of gasoline and groceries to better assess price growth trends, were up 0.3% on a monthly basis and 2.6% from a year ago. Both of those figures were hotter than the expectations of economists polled by LSEG, who predicted a monthly rise of 0.2% and an annual increase of 2.5%.
The monthly figure cooled slightly from August, when it rose 0.3%, while the annual figure rose from 2.4% in the previous report.
US ECONOMY GREW AT A FASTER PACE THAN EXPECTED IN SECOND QUARTER
The cost of living breakdown
High inflation has created severe financial pressures in recent years for most U.S. households, which are forced to pay more for everyday necessities like food and rent. Price hikes are particularly difficult for lower-income Americans because they tend to spend more of their already-stretched paychecks on necessities and have less flexibility to save.
Energy prices rose 5.2% on a monthly basis in September and have increased 20.4% from last year. That increase follows a 2.1% monthly increase in August.
Gasoline prices increased 9.1% from the prior month in September and are up 34.2% on an annual basis, and the BLS noted the gasoline index accounted for over half of the monthly rise in the headline CPI. Electricity costs increased 0.2% on a monthly basis and are up 4.4% over the past 12 months.
