The September inflation report released Friday could be the last one we get for a while.
Some Fed officials are lamenting the government-data void as they assess the impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs on the U.S. economy
The US Department of Labor headquarters in Washington, DC, US, which houses the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The September inflation report released Friday could be the last one we get for a while.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a social media post that the ongoing shutdown "will likely result in no October inflation report, which will leave businesses, markets, families, and the Federal Reserve in disarray."
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is in charge of collecting and assembling the data into monthly reports. BLS spokesperson Stacey Standish said in a Friday statement that "all active data collection activities are paused while the government is shut down." It did not specify whether the agency anticipated any data delays so far.
Annual inflation in September hit 3% from a year earlier, according to data released Friday. That was the fastest pace since January and broadly in line with economists’ surveyed by Dow Jones. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, climbed 0.2% in September and ran 3% higher compared to a year ago.
Earlier this month, the BLS recalled some furloughed employees back to finalize the September inflation report, which was necessary to calculate next year's cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security benefits. The agency still hasn't been able to release the September jobs data.
During the three-week shutdown, the BLS has been employed a skeleton staff that includes Acting Commissioner William Wiatrowski. The inflation data lands in time for next week's Fed meeting, where analysts are expecting central bankers to slash interest rates for a second time this year.
Some Fed officials have lamented the absence of federal data in determining the state of an economy grappling with President Donald Trump's tariffs. Fed Chair Jerome Powell brought up the delay in economic data releases in a speech earlier this month. "We'll start to miss that data," he said, adding that some private-sector alternatives like the payroll firm ADP provided a viable, temporary replacement. Other top officials like New York Fed president John Williams echoed that recently.
Niamh Rowe contributed to this report.
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