Wholesale inflation rose 1.8 percent in annual terms in September, while an index of underlying inflation jumped 2.8 percent, with both values exceeding market expectations and signaling that inflationary pressures continue to percolate. The headline pace of wholesale inflation, which eventually tends to get passed along to consumers and therefore serves as a leading indicator of where the Consumer Price Index is headed, inched down from an annualized 1.9 percent in August to 1.8 percent in September. Despite the decline, it defied market expectations for a deeper drop to 1.6 percent.
Core wholesale inflation, which excludes food and energy and is a measure of underlying inflationary pressures, rose to 2.8 percent year-over-year in September, up from 2.6 percent in August. This measure also surprised to the upside, as forecasters expected a 2.7 percent reading.