U.S. Inflation Rises to 3% as Prices of Imported Goods Soar

US inflation remained elevated last month as the costs of some imported goods rose while rental prices cooled.

Trump had declared that he had “killed inflation,” but data from the Federal Reserve proved otherwise.

Consumer prices increased 3% in September from a year earlier, the Labor Department said, up from 2.9% in August. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices also rose 3% — both figures higher than the Federal Reserve’s 2% target — Christopher Rugaber reported for the Associated Press (AP).

The report on the consumer price index was issued more than a week late because of the government shutdown, now in its fourth week.

The Trump administration recalled some Labor Department employees to produce the figures because they are used to set the annual cost-of-living adjustment for roughly 70 million Social Security recipients.

The most recent inflation report showed that consumer prices worsened in September for the second straight month, as President Donald Trump’s tariffs have lifted the cost of groceries and other goods.

Trump had declared that he had “killed inflation,” but data from the Federal Reserve proved otherwise.

The inflation report is the first comprehensive economic data released in more than three weeks and is expected to draw intense interest from Wall Street and officials at the Federal Reserve.