A woman checks an item from the meat department while grocery shopping at a supermarket in Alhambra, California, on July 13, 2022.
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images
The Consumer Price Index rose 7.7% in the year through October.
That’s falls below what economists expected to see.
The Fed recently increased interest rates by 0.75 percentage points again as it deals with elevated inflation.
From the supermarket to paying the rent, high prices have been slamming Americans, but inflation is coming down.
Inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index rose 7.7% year-over-year in October, according to data out Thursday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is less than the 8.0% estimate from economists surveyed by Bloomberg. October’s year-over-year change falls below September’s year-over-year growth of 8.2%.
Just over the month, seasonally-adjusted CPI increased 0.4% in October, less than the 0.6% forecast by economists surveyed by Bloomberg and same as the month-over-month increase of 0.4% seen a month prior in September.
Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, increased 6.3% in October from the same time a year ago. That means it is below the 6.5% year-over-year change economists expected to see. It’s also a a slowdown from the 6.6% increase in the year through September.
The Fed increased interest rates by 0.75 percentage points for the fourth straight time last week as it tries to deal with inflation.
“The Federal Reserve’s tools work to lower inflation by reducing demand for economic activities sensitive to interest rates,” Sherrod Brown, chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, wrote in a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. “However, a family’s ‘pocketbook’ needs have little to do with interest rates, and potential job losses brought about by monetary over-tightening will only worsen these matters for the working class.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.