A key US inflation gauge stayed at a high 6.2% in September

WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of inflation that is closely monitored by the Federal Reserve remained painfully high last month, the latest sign that prices for most goods and services in the United States are still rising steadily.

Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that prices rose 6.2 percent in September from 12 months earlier, the same yearover-year rate as in August.

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core prices rose 5.1 percent last month from a year earlier. That’s faster than the 4.9 percent annual increase in August, though below a four-decade high of 5.4 percent reached in February.

The latest price figures come just as Americans have begun voting in midterm elections in which Democrats’ control of Congress is at stake and inflation has shot to the top of voters’ concerns. Republicans have heaped blame on President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats for the skyrocketing prices that have buffeted households across the country.

The persistence of high inflation, near the worst in four decades, has intensified pressure on the Fed to keep aggressively raising its key short-term interest rate to try to wrestle rising prices under control. Last month, the Fed raised its key rate by a substantial three-quarters of a point for a third straight time, and next week it’s expected to do so for a fourth time.

Higher pay is helping maintain spending for many workers. Wages and benefits rose 5 percent in the July-September quarter from a year ago. That was a healthy gain, just below a two-decade high of 5.1 percent reached in the April-June quarter.

Still, there are signs that pay growth is cooling a bit. On a quarterly basis, it rose 1.2 percent from the April-June quarter to the July-September period. Yet that marked a second straight quarterly slowdown after compensation growth had reached a 20-year high of 1.4 percent in the first three months of 2022.