PANews reported on October 24th that the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose slightly less than expected in September, paving the way for another Federal Reserve interest rate cut next week. The US Department of Labor said Friday that the CPI rose 0.3% month-over-month in September, following a 0.4% increase in August. The annualized rate reached 3.0%, a slight improvement from August's 2.9% increase. Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the core CPI rose 0.2% month-over-month (from 0.3% in August), and the year-over-year increase slowed to 3.0% from 3.1% in August. Despite the government shutdown halting economic data releases, the CPI report was still released to assist the Social Security Administration in calculating cost-of-living adjustments for millions of retirees and other benefit recipients in 2026. The data was originally scheduled for release on October 15th. The pass-through of import tariffs has been relatively gradual, as businesses work through inventories accumulated before Trump's broad tariffs were implemented and absorb some of the tax burden. Economists note that businesses have achieved this at the expense of hiring and estimate that consumers have borne approximately 20% of the tariff costs so far.