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Inflation rose 0.3 percent this month and 3 percent in the last 12 months President Donald Trump defends his tariffs against Canada,
The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday released the Consumer Price Index report which tracks inflation. The report was delayed due to Government shutdown started this monthThe shutdown also delayed the monthly jobs report, which shows how many jobs were added or lost during September.
White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt cited the figures and accused Democrats of shutting down the government.
“Democrats choosing to keep the government closed will likely result in a missed October inflation report, leaving businesses, markets, families and the Federal Reserve in disarray,” he said in a statement. Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council for the President, said that “the numbers were spectacular.”
This news came in the form of Trump Announced that all negotiations with Canada would be discontinued In response to the United States’ northern neighbor running an ad containing out-of-context comments about the late president Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about tariffs,
The President reiterated his claims that the tariffs have helped the economy. The Supreme Court will begin hearing on whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act gives the President the authority to impose his own tariffs.
“The United States is again wealthy, powerful, and nationally secure, all because of tariffs! The most important case ever is in the Supreme Court of the United States,” Trump said on Truth Social before the release of inflation data on Friday. “God bless America!!”
Consumers have slowly begun to feel some of the impacts of the tariffs, but not all. A report from Goldman Sachs Found that companies have passed on 37 percent of the cost of the tariffs to consumers and 9 percent to their suppliers, while they have eaten up 51 percent of the cost of the tariffs.
Despite halting tariffs after the initial announcement of across-the-board tariffs in April, tariffs have become a hallmark of the President’s second term in office.
As part of his feud with Canada, he imposed a 25 percent tariff on all goods from Canada and an additional 50 percent tariff on aluminum and steel, of which Canada is a major supplier.
Gas prices drove inflation significantly, as the gasoline index increased 4.1 percent in September and the energy index increased 1.5 percent overall. Hassett attributed the increase to the closure of a refinery in Indiana, which caused energy prices to rise.
The food index rose 0.2 percent in September and rose 3.1 percent last year. The price of beef and veal increased by 1.2 percent in the past month, which comes Trump has proposed importing beef from Argentina,
The banana index rose 0.4 percent in the past month and 6.9 percent in the past 12 months as Trump announced his “Liberation DayThe tariff includes tariffs on Latin American countries from which the United States obtains bananas.
The core CPI index, which measures all goods except food and energy, rose 0.2 percent in September, down slightly from 0.3 points in the previous two months.
While the shelter index rose 0.2 percent in September, the owner rental equivalent increased only 0.1 percent, the smallest increase since 0.1 percent. But the rental index rose 0.2 percent. Airline fares rose 2.7 percent in September, slightly less than the 5.9 percent increase in August.
Inflation data will almost certainly be a key data point for the Federal Reserve as the Federal Open Market Committee meets next week to decide whether to raise interest rates. The government shutdown means the center has little information to make decisions about rates as it balances whether to keep inflation low or unemployment low.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has been a source of Trump’s ire since last year’s presidential election. In August, he fired Erica McEnterfer, the bureau’s commissioner, after reports of poor jobs.