U.S. consumer prices rose 3.7 per cent in the year to September, less than half the 8.2 per cent pace recorded in the last official reading before the 2022 midterm elections. Gasoline and mortgages, though, cost more than they did on the eve of that vote.

Those are the last numbers voters will have. The September consumer price index, published on 14 October, is the final inflation reading before Tuesday's election; the October report is not due until 10 November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says. The October jobs report follows on 6 November, three days after the polls close. The rate of inflation has fallen a long way. The prices people notice have not.

The pace of increase is much slower, but the level is higher. In the 12 months to September 2022, the last reading published before the vote on 8 November that year, consumer prices rose 8.2 per cent and core prices, which exclude food and energy, 6.6 per cent. The equivalent figures now are 3.7 and 2.6 per cent, the September 2026 release shows.