Energy ran at 16.3% in August. Core goods ran at 0.7%. The CPI headline, at 3.4%, sits between them.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the August 2026 Consumer Price Index on September 11, 2026. The CPI-U rose 3.4 percent over the 12 months through August, not seasonally adjusted [verified; BLS news release, September 11, 2026]. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the index rose 0.4 percent in August after rising 0.1 percent in July. Energy was a leading driver of the monthly gain ^mmodeled. The energy index rose 16.3 percent over the year [verified; BLS release]. Within energy: gasoline rose 27.4 percent and fuel oil rose 52 percent over the 12 months [verified; BLS release]. Gasoline's monthly rise of 3.9 percent in August accounted for more than one-third of the index's total August move. The seasonally adjusted FRED energy series (CPIENGSL) stood at 338.639 in May and 321.148 by August, a partial retreat [verified; FRED retrieval September 11, 2026]. Core CPI — all items less food and energy — rose 2.4 percent annually and 0.3 percent for the month [verified; BLS]. Shelter rose 3.0 percent for the year [verified; BLS]. Eight sub-indices were pulled from FRED (Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, seasonally adjusted where series available; year-over-year August 2026 versus August 2025); energy and core appear above, the other six here: Apparel (CPIAPPSL): 136.457 versus 131.694, up 3.6 percent. Transportation services (CUSR0000SAS4): 460.542 versus 449.479, up 2.5 percent. Shelter (CUUR0000SAH1, not seasonally adjusted): 430.611 versus 417.902, up 3.0 percent. Food and beverages (CPIFABSL): 347.104 versus 338.390, up 2.6 percent. Medical care (CPIMEDSL): 592.934 versus 583.809, up 1.6 percent. Core goods — commodities excluding food and energy — (CUSR0000SACL1E): 167.939 versus 166.838, up 0.7 percent [all verified; FRED]. The weekly retail price for regular conventional gasoline (GASREGCOVW) averaged $3.916 per gallon for the week ending August 31, 2026, and $3.996 per gallon for the week ending September 7 [verified; FRED].

The following is analysis, not fact. The gap between the 3.4 percent headline and the 2.4 percent core — 1.0 percentage point on the BLS headline figures, 0.91 on the seasonally adjusted FRED series — traces mainly to energy, which the core index excludes ^mmodeled. At approximately 7 percent of the CPI expenditure basket ^mmodeled, a 16.3 percent annual energy rate contributes roughly 1.1 to 1.2 percentage points to the headline — a gross contribution to the headline, not a clean decomposition of the headline-minus-core gap, but large enough to make energy a major contributor to that gap ^mmodeled. Food also runs above core (2.6 percent food and beverages versus 2.4 percent core), a smaller differential; energy is the larger contributor ^mmodeled. Within core, the reading on goods is the harder-to-explain result. Core goods — covering apparel, vehicles, furnishings, and other commodities excluding food and energy — rose 0.7 percent for the year, the lowest rate among the sub-indices tracked here. Apparel rose 3.6 percent, the highest of the non-energy sub-indices shown, and is a category in which a large share of supply is imported ^sspeculative. If apparel's 3.6 percent rate sits at one end and the core goods aggregate comes in at 0.7 percent, other categories within that aggregate — most likely new and used vehicles, which surged during the 2021-2022 chip shortage and have since normalized — appear to be pulling the weighted total down ^sspeculative. Medical care's 1.6 percent annual rate runs below both the 2.4 percent core and the 3.4 percent headline. Medical care has long tended to run at or above overall inflation, so a reading this soft in August 2026 departs from its recent pattern ^sspeculative.

The case that August's data is not reassuring centers on the core, not the headline. The monthly core gain of 0.3 percent held firm rather than cooling, and a run of firm monthly core prints tends to attract Federal Reserve attention more than a headline driven by energy's seasonal volatility ^mmodeled. Transportation services, at 2.5 percent annually, may partly reflect energy costs feeding through auto insurance pricing and airfare adjustments with a lag ^sspeculative. Shelter's 3.0 percent annual rate remains above the 2.4 percent core. The case that the data is reassuring centers on goods. Core goods at 0.7 percent — among the basket's slices most exposed to tariff schedules and import prices — suggests broad goods price pressure has stayed contained ^sspeculative. Medical care at 1.6 percent hints the same for services ^sspeculative. The August CPI establishes both readings simultaneously; it does not indicate which will carry more weight in the September Federal Open Market Committee meeting or beyond.