Consumer prices, jobless claims rise after Katrina

Thursday, Sept. 15, 2005 | 9:48 a.m.

Hurricane Katrina pushed up consumer prices in August and prompted the biggest weekly jump in jobless claims in nine years.

Americans paid 0.5 percent more for goods and services last month, the Labor Department said today. Energy prices rose the most in two years, partly because Katrina shut down refineries and drilling along the Gulf Coast. Inflation was tame outside of energy and food, with core prices rising 0.1 percent, less than expected.

Katrina also accounted for almost all of the 71,000 increase in first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week, the department said today. The Aug. 29 storm pushed energy costs even higher this month, reaching a point where companies may no longer be able to hold down other prices. Even so, the first September factory report today suggested manufacturing is holding up.

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