US incomes increased slowly but steadily in September, and core consumer prices posted a relatively modest rise, the Commerce Department said this afternoon.
The department said personal incomes grew at a 0.4 per cent annual rate in September, matching a revised 0.4 per cent gain in August.
The growth in incomes outstripped spending, which picked up at a 0.3 per cent rate, down from a revised 0.5 per cent increase in August.
So-called core prices that exclude food and energy items gained at a 0.2 per cent rate, double the 0.1 per cent rise in August.
But on a year-over-year basis, core prices were up just 1.8 per cent. That was the same as in August.
Federal Reserve policy-makers said on Wednesday, when they announced a quarter-percentage-point cut in the trend-setting federal funds rate, that they continued to monitor prices carefully.
The Fed cited concern about the potential for inflation, but there was little in the personal incomes report to suggest prices were accelerating.