The record rise in US mobile service prices has driven a key inflation indicator higher than expected, which may in turn lock in the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates next week. According to data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday, the core consumer price index after excluding food and energy rose 0.3% month-on-month in August, higher than the median estimate of 0.2% in the Bloomberg survey. Among them, the price of wireless phone services rose 5.9% in a single month, which alone contributed about 0.1 percentage points to the core CPI. This segment mainly reflects the prepaid and monthly plan prices offered by mobile operators. Economists at Bank of America, Barclays, and Pantheon Macroeconomics point out that major operators such as AT&T and T-Mobile US have recently adjusted their tariff plans, which may be the main reason for boosting this segment. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics declined to further explain exactly how these operators' adjustments affected the data.

The record rise in US mobile service prices has driven a key inflation indicator higher than expected, which may in turn lock in the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates next week. According to data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday, the core consumer price index after excluding food and energy rose 0.3% month-on-month in August, higher than the median estimate of 0.2% in the Bloomberg survey. Among them, the price of wireless phone services rose 5.9% in a single month, which alone contributed about 0.1 percentage points to the core CPI. This segment mainly reflects the prepaid and monthly plan prices offered by mobile operators. Economists at Bank of America, Barclays, and Pantheon Macroeconomics point out that major operators such as AT&T and T-Mobile US have recently adjusted their tariff plans, which may be the main reason for boosting this segment. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics declined to further explain exactly how these operators' adjustments affected the data.