U.S. September CPI Rises 3.7%, Exceeding Forecasts as Inflationary Pressure Mounts

Market forecast: 3.6%... up from 3.4% in August
Core CPI also exceeds expectations
Driven by a sharp rise in gasoline prices

The U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3.7% year over year in September, exceeding market expectations. With energy prices surging amid the war in the Middle East and inflationary pressures mounting again, attention is focused on the possibility of another interest rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed).

The U.S. Department of Labor said the consumer price index (CPI) rose 3.7% in September from a year earlier. Xinhua-Yonhap News.

The U.S. Department of Labor said on October 14 (local time) that the CPI rose 3.7% year over year in September. This was above the 3.6% forecast by economists surveyed by Dow Jones. It was also up 0.3 percentage points from the 3.4% increase in August.

The core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 2.6% year over year. This exceeded the market forecast of 2.5% and was 0.2 percentage points higher than the 2.4% increase in August. Month over month, it also rose 0.3%, exceeding economists’ forecast of 0.2%.

Energy prices drove up the September CPI, surging 5.2% from the previous month. Gasoline prices in particular jumped 9.1%, accounting for more than half of the monthly increase in the overall CPI. Gasoline prices were up 34.2% year over year.

Housing costs also rose 0.4% from the previous month, a larger increase than the 0.3% recorded in August. Food prices, by contrast, were unchanged from the previous month.

The September CPI is the last inflation report to be released before the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) regular meeting on October 27-28. The Federal Reserve (Fed) previously raised its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points in September.

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