The upward pressure that housing costs have been putting on inflation can now probably be safely ignored. If only there was nothing else going on but the rent.
The Labor Department on Thursday reported that consumer prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in September from August, putting them 8.2% above their year-earlier level. Core prices, which exclude food and energy items in an effort to better track inflation’s trend, rose 0.6% on the month, and 6.6% on the year. Both the headline and core measures were above economists’ estimates, dashing any remaining hopes that Federal Reserve policy makers might raise rates by half a percentage point, rather than again by three-quarters of a point, when they next meet in November.
