US Core Inflation Rate
Inflation excluding volatile food and energy prices, a cleaner read on underlying price pressure, and the measure the Fed watches most closely.
2.6%
Matches the latest releaseNot refreshed recently, awaiting the next release
Explore the full US economy26 live indicators on one dashboard, from growth and prices to jobs, trade and public finances. Updated automatically from official sources.Core Inflation Rate
Jan 1971 to Sep 2026
Source: Calculated from FRED series CPILFENS · all items less food and energy, not seasonally adjusted (BLS). This is the basis of the 12-month change BLS publishes.
US Core Inflation Rate in context
Worked out from the published series shown above.
In the US, the core inflation rate fell by 0.5pp over the year to Sep 2026, from 3.0% in Sep 2025.
Over the past five years it has ranged from 2.4% in Aug 2026 to 6.6% in Sep 2022.
Its average since Jan 1971 is 3.9%, and the latest reading is below that.
How this series is defined
Everything you need to check the figure against the source.
- Source
- BLS via FRED
- Series
- CPILFENS
- Frequency
- Monthly
- Unit
- %
- Seasonal adjustment
- Not seasonally adjusted
- Latest observation
- Sep 2026
- Revision status
- Latest published estimate, subject to revision
Data refreshed 2026-11-06. Figures are the latest published observations and can be revised.
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