BY ALICE ANN LOVE
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Prices were slightly up in October for household items such as fresh vegetables, school supplies and gasoline, but inflation overall was still tame.
The seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index climbed 0.2 percent after remaining unchanged in September, the Labor Department said Tuesday.
Even with the small October increase, the inflation rate for the first 10 months of this year - at just 1.6 percent - is better than the 11-year low of 1.7 percent for all of 1997.
"I don't think inflation is the bogey man that it was," said Christopher Swann, a senior economist with the WEFA Group in Eddystone, Pa. Earlier this year, many analysts worried that a booming U.S. economy would overheat, driving prices up significantly. Instead, economic hard times in other parts of the world have slowed growth a bit here, and price increases have been mild so far.
In a separate report Tuesday, the Commerce Department said inventories of unsold goods at the nation's businesses rose 0.6 percent in September. But sales rose by 0.8 percent, decreasing the likelihood of stockroom backlogs.
In October, energy prices rose 0.9 percent, the first increase since May and the biggest in more than a year. Gasoline prices, which jumped by 2.7 percent - the most since August 1997 - easily offset declining costs for fuel oil, electricity and natural gas.
Gasoline prices, however, are still more than 15 percent lower than a year ago, and energy prices overall have fallen at an 8.9 percent annual rate so far this year.
Food prices were up 0.6 percent in October and are 2.4 percent higher than a year ago. While prices for meats fell, the cost of vegetables shot up 5.7 percent. Tomato prices rose more than 20 percent, and the cost of lettuce was up 6.5 percent. The price of schoolbooks and supplies was up 1.4 percent, but computer prices, influenced by slumping world demand, fell again in October, by 1.5 percent. Clothing prices were up 0.1 percent, after a big drop the month before.
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