September inflation breakdown: Where are prices rising the fastest?

foxbusiness.com:

Piper Sandler Chief Global Economist Nancy Lazar details her economic expectations for the second half of the fiscal year on ‘Mornings with Maria.’

Inflation rose more than expected in September as a spike in the cost of rent and food kept prices abnormally high for millions of U.S. households. 

The Labor Department said Thursday 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, a slight improvement from August but still more than expected. 

Prices climbed 3.7% from the same time last year, coming in slightly higher than the 3.6% projected by Refinitiv economists. 

Excluding the more volatile measurements of food and energy, so-called core prices increased 0.3% for the month and 4.1% on an annual basis, in line with expectations. 

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Taken as a whole, the report painted a picture of extremely stubborn inflation that has been slow to retreat, even as the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates to the highest level in two decades.

«Just because the rate of inflation is stable for now doesn’t mean its weight isn’t increasing every month on family budgets,» said Robert Frick, corporate economist with the Navy Federal Credit Union. «And that shelter and food costs rose particularly is especially painful.»

Here is a breakdown of where Americans are seeing prices rising and falling the fastest as they continue to wrestle with sticker shock.
 

Rising rents are a concerning development because higher housing costs most directly and acutely affect household budgets. (Gabby Jones/Bloomberg/File / Getty Images)

Housing costs were the biggest driver of