The Consumer Price Index rose by its lowest margin in the three years last month, shooting up just 2.4% in the 12-month period that ended in September.
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The new data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and highlights the continued positive trend for the economy continues after years of inflation took a chunk out of Americans’ wallets and savings.
While the latest figures are welcome for struggling Americans, core CPI, the figure that takes out volatile industries like food and energy, ticked slightly up in September, rising by 3.3%.
Still, the September CPI figure was the smallest increase since February 2021, when prices first started to skyrocket following the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The biggest contributors to last month’s falling prices included gas prices, which are down more than 15% compared to last year. As a whole, the entire energy category fell last month by 6.8%.
Other areas that had a larger drop included used vehicles, which fell by 5.1%, and used vehicles, which dropped by 1.3%.
Meanwhile, the cost of food rose by 2.3% last month, with food at home prices increasing 1.3% and food away from home shooting up 3.9%.
The numbers come a month after the Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate by half a point at its September meeting. Depending on economic factors, another cut could come before the end of the year.
However, some experts noted on Thursday that last month’s figures could spell bad news for the Central Bank.
“September’s CPI report has good news and bad news for the Fed,” Eugenio Aleman, Raymond James’ chief economist, wrote in a note issued Thursday, CNN reported. “The good news is that shelter costs slowed down to 0.2%, month-on-month, and 4.9%, year-over-year. However, it also showed that there are still plenty of upside risks for inflation going forward.”
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