The Consumer Price Index rose 0.9 percent in October from September, exceeding expectations for a 0.6 percent rise. Compared with the prior October, prices are up 6.2 percent, exceeding expectations for a 5.8 percent rise and the highest annual rate since 1990.

Excluding food and energy, two categories of goods that are central to the cost-of-living to households but are so volatile that economists look beyond them to see underlying inflationary trends, and prices rose 0.6 percent on a monthly basis and 4.6 percent annually. Both exceeded expectations.

Earlier this year, inflationary pressures were largely concentrated in a few areas of the economy, leading Fed officials and others to expect inflation to taper off when temporary supply bottlenecks cleared up and demand surges related to the reopening of parts of the economy subsided….