US September CPI down 0.5 pct vs 0.3 pct fall expected, core rate up 0.2 pct

US consumer price inflation fell in September for the first time in nearly a year but prices outside of energy and food rose over the past year at their fastest rate in more than a decade, the Labor Department said. The department's Consumer Price Index fell 0.5 pct last month, sharper than the 0.3 pct decline analysts had expected. That's the largest drop since November last year, when it declined 0.7 pct. The so-called core-rate of consumer inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose by an expected 0.2 pct in September, the same increase as both July and August. For the past year, the core rate of inflation has risen 2.9 pct, the largest gain since the year to February 1996, when it also rose 2.9 pct. Elsewhere in today's release, the Labor Department said housing prices rose 0.4 pct after rising 0.3 pct in August, while transportation prices fell 4.1 pct, the largest decline since November 2005. Meanwhile, energy prices fell 7.2 pct in the month, led by plummeting gasoline prices, which fell 13.5 pct, again the largest decline since November 2005. And natural gas prices rose 2.9 pct, while fuel oil prices fell 6.2 pct. That's the largest drop in fuel oil prices since May 2003.