How much was October’s inflation?
Posted on November 13, 2026

Inflation looks like its stuck at a level that’s well above the Federal Reserve’s stated 2% target. I see no trend for higher inflation and certainly not lower inflation. I show a summary table and four graphs in this post.

Details:

The two most widely-reported measures of inflation are Seasonally-adjusted inflation and Core inflation.

Seasonally-adjusted inflation is the most widely reported measure of inflation. Inflation accelerated in September. The six-month rate is 3.0%. Inflation for the past 12 months was 4.0%.

Core inflation excludes volatile energy and food components. The six-month rate runs at 2.8% annual inflation, and inflation for the past 12 months was 4.0%.

Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) excluding Food and Energy is the measure of inflation that the Federal Reserve Board favors. The graph shows data ending September. We get the data for October at the end of this month. The measure usually shows lower inflation than Core inflation, bit it’s been higher recently. The last six-months runs at 2.9% on an annual basis vs. 2.7% for Core inflation, and the 12-month rate was 3.1%, also 0.2% greater than Core inflation.

== History of 12-month inflation rates ==

Full-year inflation measured by CPI-U (not seasonally adjusted) rose to 4.0% from 3.7% last month.  

Conclusion: Inflation continues along at roughly 3%. It looks stuck to me.