Inflation Advances To 5.1 % Annual Rate, But Food Rise Slows: Auto ...
Sharp increases in the cost of clothing and auto insurance helped send inflation back into the 5 percent annual range last month despite the smallest monthly increase in food costs since February, the government said yesterday.</br></br>Consumer prices rose 0.4 percent in OctoberÛÓor at an annual rate of 5.1 percentÛÓwith more than half of the gain coming from a 1.8 percent boost in apparel prices and steep increases in auto insurance and financing charges, the Labor Department said.</br></br>1.7	percent drop in gasoline prices offset drought-caused spikes in grocery prices. Overall cost increases were held to just 0.3 percent for that month.</br></br>Economists also had anticipated smaller price increases in October, believing that merchants would not mark up their fall and winter clothing lines as much after already boosting them by 2 percent in September.</br></br>ÛÏItÛªs still fundamentally in line with an inflation rate of 4.5 percent to 5 percent that weÛªve seen over the past year or so,Û said Larry Chimerine, chairman of the WEFA Group, a Bala Cynwyd, Pa., forecasting firm.