Did utility costs decline 28.3% during past year?

It's not a typo.

The Wells Fargo Cost of Living survey stunned the bank's own economists Wednesday in showing that the cost of utilities dropped 28.3 percent along the Wasatch Front in the year-over period ending in mid-October, pulling the overall inflation index dramatically lower.

"Certainly utility pricing is never a simple matter," said Kelly K. Matthews, executive vice president and economist at Wells Fargo. "The comments (from the bank's researchers) were that this was a decline in water prices, which might very well be. But the impact on the number is just way out of line. So there's clearly got to be a revision, and therefore all categories will have to be revised as well."

Unrevised, the October report found that the overall cost of living along the Wasatch Front declined 3.4 percent. Along with the belly flop in utilities prices, Wells reported that the cost of transportation fell 7.1 percent during the year-over period. Education and communication costs fell 1.3 percent, while housing costs saw an 0.8 percent drop.

Increases were reported in the cost of groceries (1.8 percent) and clothing (1.3 percent). All other categories reported stable prices.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Labor Department reported Wednesday that consumer prices at the national level rose 0.2 percent in October, the best showing in four months. October's findings were helped by a 0.2 percent drop in energy costs. Energy prices have risen 37.1 percent at an annual rate through the first 10 months of this year. That compares to a 16.6 percent jump in energy prices in 2004.

The nation's core inflation rate, which excludes the more volatile food and energy categories, edged 0.2 percent higher in October, up 0.1 percent from the increases of the previous five months. However, in a worrisome development for winter heating bills, natural gas prices shot up 14 percent in October, the biggest increase since January 2001. Prices for electricity were up 0.7 percent, but prices for home heating oil fell by 0.4 percent. Food costs edged up 0.3 percent in October, while clothing costs fell 0.4 percent.

Stock markets were mixed Wednesday. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 11.68 to 10,674.76. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 2.20 to 1,231.21, and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.19 to 2,187.93.