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The White House claimed Friday that the government shutdown could delay or eliminate the next inflation report, causing economic fallout.
The Rapid Response 47 account on X wrote Friday, “The White House has learned there will likely NOT be an inflation release next month for the first time in history.”
“Due to the Democrat Shutdown, surveyors cannot deploy to the field — depriving us of critical data. The economic consequences could be devastating,” the post said.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, celebrated a strong stock market performance, as newly released Labor Department figures showed that inflation for the month came in at a better than expected 3%.
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That’s the highest since January and up from 2.9% in August. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices also rose 3%, down from 3.1% in the previous month. Cooler inflation data for September sent Wall Street surging Friday.
“THE STOCK MARKET IS STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE BECAUSE OF TARIFFS!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
It comes as investors bet on another Federal Reserve rate cut following the new inflation figures.
Core inflation, excluding food and energy, also eased to 0.2% monthly and 3.0% annually, showing modest cooling, while gasoline prices — the biggest driver of inflation — surged 4.1% following several months of declines.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt hailed the figures in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“Inflation came in below market expectations in September thanks to President Trump’s economic agenda,” Leavitt said.
“This is good news for American families, and it’s a shame the Democrats are using them as leverage to fund health care for illegal aliens. Democrats choosing to keep the government closed will likely result in no October inflation report, which will leave businesses, markets, families, and the Federal Reserve in disarray,” Leavitt said.
“Because surveyors cannot deploy to the field, the White House has learned there will likely NOT be an inflation release next month for the first time in history,” the administration added in an emailed statement to The Associated Press.
Republicans have blamed the shutdown on Democrats, arguing that they refused to fund the budget in an attempt to reinstate taxpayer-funded medical benefits for illegal immigrants through Democrat lawmakers’ continuing resolution, which would include extending the expiring Obamacare tax credits.
Democratic leadership has disputed the claims, saying that Trump and Republican lawmakers are really behind the shutdown.
The report comes as the broader economy shows steady growth but slower hiring, creating a mixed picture for consumers and markets.
Rents rose just 0.2%, the smallest yearly gain in nearly four years, while consumer prices increased 3% in September from a year earlier, the highest since January, and up from 2.9% in August.
The figures show that inflation continues to rise more slowly than many economists expected when Trump imposed sweeping tariffs in April. Economists estimate that the tariffs are adding roughly 0.4 percentage points to annual inflation.
Some of those duties were later reduced as part of trade deals, while many companies have only passed on part of the tariff cost to consumers out of concern that doing so would reduce sales. Businesses may shift more costs to consumers in the coming months if the duties appear permanent.
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The smaller increase will come as a relief to the Federal Reserve, which has signaled it will cut interest rates again next week — the second time this year — even as inflation remains above its 2% target.
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, echoed Leavitt’s optimism, saying the latest numbers show inflation continuing to move in the right direction despite the shutdown pause in reporting.
“This is actually a really great report,” Hassett told Fox News. “The market is responding appropriately to good news, because 48 Bloomberg economists said this number was going to go way up. If you look at core CPI — the measure economists rely on most — it was down from August, below expectations and headed in the right direction.”
“The top-line number was slightly higher only because of a refinery shutdown in September that temporarily drove up gas prices, but those have already come down,” he said. “The next time we get a CPI release, once the government reopens, we’ll see even further reductions in inflation.”
Hassett added that the brief rise in gas prices doesn’t change the overall outlook, pointing to steady progress in cooling inflation.
“The bottom line is the markets are responding not because they think inflation is going up, but because they believe, as we know is true, that inflation is headed in the right trajectory,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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