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Latest inflation numbers paint grim picture for economy

The consumer price index rose .4 percent from August to September, which is higher than expected.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The new inflation numbers back up what millions of Americans have been concerned about for months -- everything from gas, to food, to housing keeps getting more expensive.

The consumer price index rose .4 percent from August to September, which is higher than expected. One of the everyday items that saw the biggest cost increase was food, with prices jumping .8 percent.

ABC News Correspondent Alexis Christoforous said, "This is a real burden and at the cost of living has really gone up. While wages have gone up as well, we all know they are not keeping pace with inflation."

One of the few places where prices started to drop in September was gas pumps, but even those prices are starting to creep back up in October. 

Filling up gas tanks are expected to keep getting more expensive after OPEC announced it will cut oil production by two-million barrels a day.

The inflation numbers all but guarantee that the fed will raise its short-term rate by three-quarters of a point for a fourth straight time when it meets early next month.

"Fed chair Jerome Powell, he said we're going to raise interest rates and keep them high until we see real evidence that inflation is coming down. This report today certainly does not show us that," said Christoforous.

Now there was some good news in Thursday's report.

The prices for some physical goods including clothes, used cars and furniture actually dropped last month. Thanks in large part to supply chain issues getting resolved.

As for the housing market lenders wasted no time raising their interest rates.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average on a 30-year fixed home loan is 6.9 percent, that number was just 3 percent at this time last year.

Senator Mitch McConnell released a statement in response to the new inflation report blaming what he calls 'runaway inflation' on President Biden and democratic lawmakers. 

He specifically called out President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan.

"In just the past few months, with inflation already raging, democrats spent hundreds of billions of dollars more, raised taxes on the brink of a recession, and decided to make inflation even worse for blue-collar families in order to pay off graduate school debt for doctors and lawyers," McConnell said in his statement.

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