- The New York Times – Gasoline Buoys U.S. Consumer Prices, Underlying Inflation Tame
U.S. consumer prices recorded their biggest increase in eight months in September as gasoline prices soared in the wake of hurricane-related production disruptions at oil refineries in the Gulf Coast area, but underlying inflation remained muted…Gasoline prices surged 13.1 percent last month, accounting for 75 percent of the rise in the CPI. The increase in gasoline prices was the largest since June 2009 and followed a 6.3 percent advance in August. The Labor Department said Harvey was reported to have impacted refinery capacity in the Gulf Coast and was likely a factor in last month’s increase in gasoline prices. Outside gasoline, price pressures were benign. Excluding the volatile food and energy components, consumer prices gained 0.1 percent in September as the increase in rental accommodation slowed and the cost of new motor vehicles and medical care declined.
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For those who wish to dig deeper into this month’s inflation releases, the interactive visualization below offers charts on CPI, PPI, PCE, global inflation and inflation expectations. The time frames, subindices and annualization periods can all be changed for a customized view.
In past weeks we have talked about the hurricanes’ effect on jobs data, GDP nowcasts, and even looked at market behavior after past major hurricanes. This week’s iteration of hurricane-skewed data comes in the form of gasoline CPI.
As the chart below shows, gasoline CPI was up 13.08% in the month of September. This marks the third highest monthly increase in gasoline CPI on record, trailing only September 2005 (Hurricane Katrina) and June 2009. As the story above points out, gasoline prices accounted for 75% of the rise in CPI in September.