Wasatch Front's cost of living dropped slightly in September

Credit is tight and the stock market is spiraling, but the latest inflation measurement comes with a bit of a bright side for Utah consumers: a break at the grocery store and the gas pump.

The Wells Fargo Consumer Price Index released Thursday shows the Wasatch Front's cost of living dropped 0.4 percent in September. The decrease includes about a 2 percent drop in both the price of groceries and transportation, largely because of falling gas prices.

Nationally, consumer prices remained flat. A 4.1 percent jump in the cost of clothes was balanced by a 3.5 percent drop in utilities and a 0.4 percent housing-cost decline.

Still, the bright spot is really just for last month.

Since February, local inflation actually is up 3.9 percent, led by a 7.9 percent increase in grocery costs, an 8.2 percent hike in utilities costs and a 9.1 percent transportation-cost increase. Nothing the index measures, in fact, from health care to recreation, costs the same or less than it did in February, according to the Wells Fargo report.

Nationally, inflation was slightly less pronounced, at 3.3 percent since February. Utilities accounted for the biggest cost increase, at 12.7 percent.

The numbers are not seasonally adjusted.

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