WASHINGTON - Prices charged to U.S. consumers rose less steeply than anticipated in September, a Labor Department report on Thursday showed, despite some hefty rises for individual items like tobacco and air fares.
The Consumer Price Index rose 0.2 percent last month after an identical August gain. The so-called "core" rate of inflation that strips out volatile food and energy costs, was up 0.2 percent after a 0.1 percent increase in August. Wall Street economists had anticipated a sharper 0.3 percent rise in both the overall and core measures of consumer prices for last month.
So far in the first nine months this year, the CPI has risen at a 1.8 percent annual rate, a decline from the 3.3 percent rise for all of 1996.
The department said the 2.2 percent increase in the "core" rate of inflation over the 12 months to Sept. 30 was the lowest since the period from May 1965-May 1966, when it rose only 2.1 percent.
Energy prices climbed another 1.3 percent in September after a 1.7 percent jump in August. But food prices edged up only 0.1 percent following a 0.4 percent gain in August as prices for goods like fruit and vegetables, coffee and for meats, poultry and fish fell last month.
Tobacco prices jumped 1.4 percent in September, double the 0.7 percent rise in August. Tobacco price increases, introduced at the start of the month as producers prepared for settling lawsuits, also helped boost September wholesale prices. The Producer Price Index, published last Friday, jumped 0.5 percent last month.
Airline fares climbed 2.1 percent after falling 4.7 percent in August. The department said "super-saver" discount fares continued to cause wide swings from month-to-month in airline fares.
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