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US consumer prices rise 0.3% in September | US consumer prices rise 0.3% in September |
(about 1 hour later) | |
US consumer prices rose by 0.3% in September, the US Labor Department says, with fuel costs seeing big increases. | US consumer prices rose by 0.3% in September, the US Labor Department says, with fuel costs seeing big increases. |
Petrol prices rose by 2.9% while food prices were up 0.4% from the month before. | Petrol prices rose by 2.9% while food prices were up 0.4% from the month before. |
Stripping out food and petrol costs, so-called core prices increased by just 0.1% - the smallest gain since March. | Stripping out food and petrol costs, so-called core prices increased by just 0.1% - the smallest gain since March. |
Economists expect price increases to moderate as weak growth lowers commodity prices. | Economists expect price increases to moderate as weak growth lowers commodity prices. |
House building | |
Separate figures showed that construction of new homes in the US hit its fastest pace for 17 months in September. | |
Figures from the Commerce Department showed housing starts were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 658,000 units, a 15% rise on August's figure and much higher than analysts' expectations. | |
However, the majority of the increase, 53%, was in apartment building. Single-family home construction rose by only 1.7%. | |
Pierre Ellis, an analyst at Decision Economics said this signalled that builders were not as confident about future prospects. | |
"Greater optimism would have been prompted if single-family starts had increased," he said. | |
Developers are struggling to compete with deeply discounted foreclosures and short sales, which is when lenders allow borrowers to sell homes for less than what is owed on their mortgages. |
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