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Government report: Consumer prices rose more than expected in October

· Morning edition

AI-assisted edition by . Published by Intrigued.me, LLC.

Consumer prices rose more than expected in October, according to a government report released on Tuesday. Prices rose 0.4% in October, exceeding economists' expectations of 0.3%. Still, inflation slowed on a monthly basis from September, when prices climbed 0.6%. The report, however, is missing a key data point: the change in prices compared to a year ago. That figure, which usually draws close scrutiny, cannot be calculated because the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) did not publish an inflation report last October amid the government shutdown. Prices for shelter increased 0.3% in October, accounting for more than 30% of the overall monthly rise in prices, the BLS said. The index for energy increased 0.7% on a monthly basis in October, cooling off from a 5.2% jump in September.

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  1. WinstonConsumer prices rose more than expected in October, according to a government report released today.
  2. AsherOctober's consumer prices rose zero point four percent; economists expected zero point three percent. September's rise was zero point six percent.
  3. WinstonSo the increase was larger than economists expected, but smaller than September's. Those are two different comparisons.
  4. AsherExactly. And there's a third comparison we don't have: how prices changed compared with a year ago.
  5. WinstonWhy can't that yearly comparison be calculated?
  6. AsherThe United States Bureau of Labor Statistics didn't publish an inflation report last October amid the government shutdown. That's why the change compared with a year ago can't be calculated.
  7. WinstonAnd within October's increase, how much came from shelter?
  8. AsherThe bureau said shelter prices rose zero point three percent in October, accounting for more than thirty percent of the overall monthly price rise.
  9. WinstonSo zero point three percent is shelter's own increase; more than thirty percent is its share of the overall increase. Those percentages measure different things.
  10. AsherRight. The energy index rose zero point seven percent in October, down from a five point two percent jump in September.
  11. WinstonThat's a much smaller energy increase, not a price drop. The same distinction holds for the overall figures: October's prices rose more slowly than September's, but they still rose.

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