Fed’s Preferred Inflation Gauge Shows Price Pressures Stuck at 30-Year High 4th Month In a Row

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell testifies at a House Coronavirus Subcommittee hearing on the Federal Reserve's response to the Coronavirus Pandemic on Capitol Hill in Washington, on June 22, 2021. Graeme Jennings-Pool/Getty Images

Inflation continued to run red hot in September, with the Commerce Department reporting that the headline Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index surged 4.4 percent over the year, to a level not seen since 1991.

Meanwhile, the core PCE inflation index, which excludes the volatile categories of food and energy and is the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, rose in the year through September at 3.6 percent, the Commerce Department announced on Oct. 29.