Inflation fell to 1.8% in September in producer index, good news for Fed
By
Zach Halaschak
October 11, 2024 8:33 am
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Inflation, as measured by the producer price index, fell a tenth of a percentage point to 1.8% for the year ending in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday in some good news for the Federal Reserve and Vice President Kamala Harris.
The decline is welcome news for the economy, which has been strained under the burden of inflation. On a month-to-month basis, prices did not rise.
Still, the underlying details of the report were not as encouraging. The decline in annual headline was driven by a drop in energy prices, which are down 2.7% on the year. But “core inflation,” a metric which strips out food and energy prices, rose from 2.6% in August to 2.8% in September.
The producer price index, which is different from the more commonly cited consumer price index, is based on prices received by various producers and sellers of goods and services. The CPI data were released on Thursday and showed that inflation fell a tenth of a percentage point to 2.4% for the year ending in September.
That is nearing the Fed’s 2% goal, although CPI inflation didn’t cool as much as expected in the latest report — which is the last such one before the November election, which pits Harris against former President Donald Trump.
Inflation, as tracked by the CPI, is now the lowest it has been since February 2021, shortly after President Joe Biden was sworn in.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/finance-and-economy/3185139/inflation-dropped-to-1-8-in-september-in-producer-price-index/
