U.S. inflation continued to push prices up in October, with prices rising at the fastest monthly rate since April.
The consumer price index rose 0.2 percent in October, matching the prior month, the Department of Labor said Wednesday. Before rounding, prices were up 0.244 percent, the first time since April the unrounded figure has risen above two percent.
This was the third consecutive month of prices rising 0.2 percent on a month-to-month basis. On a year-over-year basis, inflation picked up from the 2.4 percent rate recorded in September to 2.6 percent.
Core prices, which exclude food and energy, rose 0.3 percent and were up 3.3 percent from a year earlier.
Housing prices rose 0.4 percent, accounting for over half of the overall increase. The food increase climbed 0.2 percent, with groceries rising 0.1 percent and dining-out prices rising 0.2 percent.
The increases matched what economists had expected. The increase in core prices matched the increase in median inflation, a measure of underlying price pressure, that has been steady for the past three months.
If the October rate of inflation were to hold for 12 months, it would result in an annual rate of three percent. That is the highest one-month annualized rate since April. The one-month annualized core rate of inflation was 3.4 percent, which is down from the 3.8 percent rate recorded in September.
