Here are the changes in the seasonally adjusted CPI for the six months ending in Sept.:
That site shows a graph but if you click on the Download button you will get the actual numbers in Microsoft Excel.
The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average (CPIAUCSL) was 336.298 in Sept. and 337.476 in Oct. Since 337.476/336.298 = 1.003503, that means it was up 0.3503%. If we had that every month for 12 months the CPI would be up 4.29%.
There was no CPI report in Oct. 2025 because of the government shutdown. So I took the average of Sept. and Nov. of 2025 to get 324.654. There is no guarantee that it would have been higher in Oct. than Sept. because sometimes the CPI does go down in a given month. But most months it does increase.
Using 324.654 as an estimate for Oct. 2025 then 337.476/324.654 = 1.0395. That means it would be up 3.95% over the last 12 months.
If I do a similar estimate for the the non-seasonally adjusted CPI it would be up 4.02%. So pretty close to the seasonally adjusted CPI. This is well above the Fed's target of 2.0% (although they prefer to use the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index which was 3.6% higher in Sept. 2026 than Sept. 2025).
For more information see Consumer prices rose 0.4% in October, more than expected, complicating Fed’s inflation fight by Jeff Cox of CNBC. Excerpt:
"Costs for goods and services rose more than expected in October, providing fresh warning signs for the Federal Reserve in its fight to lower inflation.
The consumer price index, a broad gauge of costs across the U.S. economy, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.4% for the month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a 0.3% increase.
Stripping out volatile food and energy, so-called core CPI increased 0.3% against the forecast for a 0.2% gain.
The headline CPI had increased 0.6% in September while core was up 0.3%.
The report comes at a critical juncture for the Federal Reserve as it considers its next interest-rate move. Speaking Tuesday morning in London ahead of the CPI release, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said a hot inflation report could push him toward advocating for a half-point increase in December, and specifically said such a hike should be on the table if core CPI was “around 0.3.”"
The article also discusses what types of products are going up in price and what is going down.
Related material:
Year |
CPI %Ch. |
|
Year |
CPI %Ch. |
|
Year |
CPI %Ch. |
|
Year |
CPI %Ch. |
|
1914 |
1 |
|
1944 |
2.3 |
|
1974 |
12.3 |
|
2004 |
3.3 |
|
1915 |
2 |
|
1945 |
2.2 |
|
1975 |
6.9 |
|
2005 |
3.4 |
|
1916 |
12.6 |
|
1946 |
18.1 |
|
1976 |
4.9 |
|
2006 |
2.5 |
|
1917 |
18.1 |
|
1947 |
8.8 |
|
1977 |
6.7 |
|
2007 |
4.1 |
|
1918 |
20.4 |
|
1948 |
3 |
|
1978 |
9 |
|
2008 |
0.1 |
|
1919 |
14.5 |
|
1949 |
-2.1 |
|
1979 |
13.3 |
|
2009 |
2.7 |
|
1920 |
2.6 |
|
1950 |
5.9 |
|
1980 |
12.5 |
|
2010 |
1.5 |
|
1921 |
-10.8 |
|
1951 |
6 |
|
1981 |
8.9 |
|
2011 |
3 |
|
1922 |
-2.3 |
|
1952 |
0.8 |
|
1982 |
3.8 |
|
2012 |
1.7 |
|
1923 |
2.4 |
|
1953 |
0.7 |
|
1983 |
3.8 |
|
2013 |
1.5 |
|
1924 |
0 |
|
1954 |
-0.7 |
|
1984 |
3.9 |
|
2014 |
0.8 |
|
1925 |
3.5 |
|
1955 |
0.4 |
|
1985 |
3.8 |
|
2015 |
0.7 |
|
1926 |
-1.1 |
|
1956 |
3 |
|
1986 |
1.1 |
|
2016 |
2.1 |
|
1927 |
-2.3 |
|
1957 |
2.9 |
|
1987 |
4.4 |
|
2017 |
2.1 |
|
1928 |
-1.2 |
|
1958 |
1.8 |
|
1988 |
4.4 |
|
2018 |
1.9 |
|
1929 |
0.6 |
|
1959 |
1.7 |
|
1989 |
4.6 |
|
2019 |
2.3 |
|
1930 |
-6.4 |
|
1960 |
1.4 |
|
1990 |
6.1 |
|
2020 |
1.4 |
|
1931 |
-9.3 |
|
1961 |
0.7 |
|
1991 |
3.1 |
|
2021 |
7 |
|
1932 |
-10.3 |
|
1962 |
1.3 |
|
1992 |
2.9 |
|
2022 |
6.5 |
|
1933 |
0.8 |
|
1963 |
1.6 |
|
1993 |
2.7 |
|
2023 |
3.4 |
|
1934 |
1.5 |
|
1964 |
1 |
|
1994 |
2.7 |
|
2024 |
2.9 |
|
1935 |
3 |
|
1965 |
1.9 |
|
1995 |
2.5 |
|
2025 |
2.7 |
|
1936 |
1.4 |
|
1966 |
3.5 |
|
1996 |
3.3 |
|
|
|
|
1937 |
2.9 |
|
1967 |
3 |
|
1997 |
1.7 |
|
|
|
|
1938 |
-2.8 |
|
1968 |
4.7 |
|
1998 |
1.6 |
|
|
|
|
1939 |
0 |
|
1969 |
6.2 |
|
1999 |
2.7 |
|
|
|
|
1940 |
0.7 |
|
1970 |
5.6 |
|
2000 |
3.4 |
|
|
|
|
1941 |
9.9 |
|
1971 |
3.3 |
|
2001 |
1.6 |
|
|
|
|
1942 |
9 |
|
1972 |
3.4 |
|
2002 |
2.4 |
|
|
|
|
1943 |
3 |
|
1973 |
8.7 |
|
2003 |
1.9 |
|
|
|
