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How about that US inflation, eh?:

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

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core prices rose 5.1 per cent last month from a year earlier. That’s faster than the 4.9 per cent annual increase in August, though below a four-decade high of 5.4 per cent reached in February.
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Higher pay is helping maintain spending for many workers. Wages and benefits rose 5 per cent in the July-September quarter from a year ago. That was a healthy gain, just below a two-decade high of 5.1 per cent 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 per cent 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 per cent in the first three months of 2022.
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Americans, on average, built up their savings during the pandemic, a time when many people stayed home, postponed travel and vacations and dined out less. Economists estimate that that extra savings totalled about $2.4-trillion last year, mostly among higher-income Americans. But it is being spent down and now stands at about $1.5-trillion.

Friday’s report also showed that consumers spent more last month, even after adjusting for inflation, a sign of Americans’ willingness to keep spending in the face of high prices. Consumer spending increased 0.6 per cent from August to September, or 0.3 per cent after accounting for price increases.

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Europe’s worse:

Preliminary data on Monday from Europe’s statistics office showed headline inflation came in at an annual 10.7% this month. This represents the highest ever monthly reading since the euro zone’s formation. The 19-member bloc has faced higher prices, particularly on energy and food, for the past 12 months. But the increases have been accentuated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February.

This proved to be the case once again, with energy costs expected to have had the highest annual rise in October, at 41.9% from 40.7% in September. Food, alcohol and tobacco prices also climbed in the same period, jumping 13.1% from 11.8% in the previous month.
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Monday’s data comes after individual countries reported flash estimates last week. In Italy, headline inflation came in above analysts’ expectations at 12.8% year on year. Germany also said inflation jumped to 11.6% and in France the number reached 7.1%. The different values reflect measures taken by national governments, as well as the level of dependency that their nations have, or had, on Russian hydrocarbons.

There are, however, euro nations where inflation rose by more than 20%. This includes Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 31st, 2022 at 9:00 pm and is filed under Market Action. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.