{"id":493,"date":"2026-09-11T15:15:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T15:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/?p=493"},"modified":"2026-09-11T15:15:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T15:15:22","slug":"inflation-holds-steady-at-elevated-level-as-iran-war-pushes-up-gas-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/?p=493","title":{"rendered":"Inflation holds steady at elevated level as Iran war pushes up gas prices"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Customers shop at a grocery store on Sept. 10, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(WASHINGTON) — Inflation held steady in August but price increases remained elevated as the\u00a0Iran war<\/span>\u00a0continued to push up fuel prices months after it began. The reading matched economists’ expectations.<\/p>\n

Prices rose 3.4% in August compared to a year earlier, maintaining the same level from the prior month,\u00a0federal government data<\/span>\u00a0released on Friday morning showed.<\/p>\n

Inflation stands more than a percentage point higher than the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%.<\/p>\n

Gas prices jumped nearly 4% in August from July, accounting for about a third of the overall price jump last month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said. Shelter prices — which include home-owner payments and rental charges — also sped up in August from July.<\/p>\n

Groceries provided a bright spot in the report, however. The price of groceries stayed flat in August from July, putting annual inflation for groceries at 2.2%. That figure for grocery inflation stands well below the annual pace of overall price increases.<\/p>\n

The fresh data arrived days after oil prices\u00a0topped<\/span>\u00a0$100 a barrel and gas prices notched their highest level for any Labor Day on record.<\/p>\n

The economy has shown signs of additional strain in recent days, including a\u00a0bond selloff<\/span>\u00a0that threatens to raise borrowing costs for mortgages and credit cards.<\/p>\n

Central bankers are sure to closely examine the inflation report as they weigh a potential\u00a0interest rate hike<\/span>\u00a0at their meeting next week. Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh has vowed to cool off persistently elevated price increases.<\/p>\n

Despite a stubborn bout of inflation, the economy remains fairly robust by some measures.<\/p>\n

A blockbuster jobs report last week\u00a0showed<\/span>\u00a0employers added 162,000 workers in August, demonstrating continued resilience for the nation’s labor market. The economy grew over three months ending in June, defying fear of a downturn triggered by the Iran war.<\/p>\n

Inflation, however, continues to weigh on shoppers, while raising the likelihood of Fed intervention that may slow the economy.<\/p>\n

Attacks on oil tankers in the Middle East pushed global crude prices above $105 a barrel as of Thursday, which amounted to a rise of about 50% since the Iran war broke out in late February.<\/p>\n

The average price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. stands at $4.29, putting it more than $1.30 higher than before the war,\u00a0AAA<\/span><\/a>\u00a0data showed.<\/p>\n

Record-high\u00a0diesel prices<\/span>\u00a0have raised transport costs for many everyday products, including groceries, clothes and furniture.<\/p>\n

The price woes have divided central bankers eager to contain inflation but reluctant to cool off the labor market.<\/p>\n

The Fed opted to hold interest rates steady at its most recent meeting in July. Three of the 12 members on the Fed’s policymaking board, however, voted in favor of a rate hike, marking the largest number of dissenters casting ballots in the same direction since 2016.<\/p>\n

Financial markets peg the odds of a quarter-point rate hike next week at 71%, according to the\u00a0CME Group’s FedWatch tool<\/span>, a measure of investor sentiment.<\/p>\n

Warsh, who took the helm of the central bank in May, said late last month that it should prioritize fighting inflation.<\/p>\n

“Inflation is running above our 2% target so the Fed’s predominant focus right now should be on prices,” Warsh said in remarks last week at the Fed’s annual summer gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.<\/p>\n

“If the Fed gets inflation wrong and judges the economy wrong, who gets the worst of it? Not the financial high-fliers. Hard-working Americans are the ones left to deal with inflation that is too high or jobs that suddenly appear less secure,” Warsh added.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Customers shop at a grocery store on Sept. 10, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson\/Getty Images) (WASHINGTON) — Inflation held steady in August but price increases remained elevated as the\u00a0Iran war\u00a0continued to push up fuel prices months after it began. The reading matched economists’ expectations. Prices rose 3.4% in August compared to a year earlier, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}