Inflation surged more than expected in September as prices remain stubbornly high

Inflation ran hotter than expected in September as persistent prices continued to squeeze U.S. households and worsen a political headache for President Biden with just one month until midterm elections.

The Labor Department said Thursday that the consumer price index, a broad measure of the price for everyday goods including gasoline, groceries and rents, rose 0.4% in September from the previous month. Prices climbed 8.2% on an annual basis. 

Those figures were both higher than the 8.1% headline figure and 0.2% monthly increase forecast by Refinitiv economists, a worrisome sign for the Federal Reserve as it seeks to cool price gains and tame consumer demand with an aggressive interest rate hike campaign. 

In an even more concerning development that suggests underlying inflationary pressures in the economy remain strong, core prices –  which strip out the more volatile measurements of food and energy – climbed 0.6% in September from the previous month. From the same time last year, core prices jumped 6.6%, the fastest since 1982.