A price gauge released by the US Commerce Department on the 29th rose 3.6% from a year earlier, slightly below the 3.7% forecast. Coming a day after the Fed's hold, the energy-driven trend becomes a variable for the December meeting.
According to South Korea's Kyunghyang Shinmun, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported on the 29th that the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index rose 0.5% from the previous month and 3.6% from a year earlier. That is below the 3.7% Dow Jones consensus but far from the Fed's 2% long-run goal. Kyunghyang headlined it as third-quarter inflation, while the figures in the body are for September.
광고 문의 · 300×250Core PCE, excluding food and energy, rose 3.1% on the year and 0.3% on the month, the same monthly pace as August. In other words, the large headline gain reflects not only core pressure but energy.
The number energy built
Kyunghyang named energy supply disruptions and higher prices from the Iran war as the main cause. That matches the tone of the previous day's Fed decision: the FOMC held 10 to 2 with two members favouring a hike, and Chair Kevin Warsh called the economy strong but inflation still high. Where yesterday's story covered the political context of the decision, this figure shows its basis, the prices households actually feel.
Coming in lower than expected is a relief, but markets are not expecting a cut right away. Kyunghyang said attention is on whether the Fed raises rates at its last meeting of the year in December, and it noted views that further hikes could follow next year if inflation keeps rising.
In Europe the ECB held rates the same day and warned the energy shock could spread through indirect effects. The US 3.6% and the eurozone's 3.8% September consumer price rise are hard to compare directly because the measures are built differently. What both share is war-driven energy prices pushing inflation up.