(Headline USA) Annual inflation rose in October for the first time in seven months.
Consumer prices are thought to have increased 2.6% from 12 months earlier, according to a survey of economists by the data provider FactSet, up from 2.4% in September.
Measured month to month, prices are believed to have ticked up 0.2% from September to October, the same as in the previous month.
Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core prices are forecast to have risen 3.3% from a year earlier, unchanged from the previous month.
From September to October, core prices are expected to have risen 0.3% for a third straight month—a pace that, if sustained, would exceed the Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target.
An uptick in prices could fuel concerns in financial markets that progress in taming inflation might be slowing.
It might make the Fed less inclined to cut its key interest rate in December and next year, as its officials have previously indicated they likely would.
Consumer inflation, which peaked at 9.1% in 2022, has since fallen, though overall costs are still about 20% higher than they were three years ago.
The price spike soured Americans on the economy and on the Biden-Harris administration’s economic stewardship and contributed to Vice President Kamala Harris’s loss in last week’s presidential election.
President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to reduce inflation, and stock prices surged in the wake of Trump’s election victory.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
