Rising food costs and higher rents offset a drop in gas prices last month, leaving consumer prices only slightly higher in October compared with the previous month. From the Associated Press report:

The consumer price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent in October, down from sharp gains of 0.6 percent in the previous two months, the Labor Department said. In the past year, prices increased 2.2 percent. That’s just above the Federal Reserve’s inflation target of 2 percent.

This ‘headline’ number is the one that matters for holders of TIPS and I Bonds, because it determines the principal adjustment on TIPS and contributes to the future interest rate on I Bonds. The Fed, though, more closely watched core inflation, which rose 0.2% in October.

Here is the full Labor Department report.