November U.S. Consumer Price Increases Highest in 1½ Years

U.S. consumer prices likely increased by the most in 1½ years in the year through November, economists predicted, underscoring worsening affordability challenges confronting Americans that have been partly blamed on tariffs on imports, Lucia Mutikani reported for Reuters.

The October CPI release was canceled because the price data could not be collected retroactively.

The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will not publish month-to-month changes when it releases the delayed Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for November, after a 43-day government shutdown prevented the collection of October data.

The October CPI release was canceled because the price data could not be collected retroactively.

The longest shutdown in U.S. history also disrupted labor market reporting, with the government failing to publish an unemployment rate for October for the first time.

However, the BLS will release year-on-year figures for the CPI and the so-called core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy components.

The agency publishes numerous indexes in addition to the headline and core CPI. Those derived from data that does not require physical collection will be released, though the BLS said it expects “the number of publishable indexes to be small.”