Figures for new home construction fell to their lowest level for 14 years in September, new data showed on Wednesday, as consumer prices rose at the quickest rate in four months. The U.S. Commerce Department said home construction starts fell 10.2 percent in September, while building permit activity, a sign of future construction plans, also dropped to the lowest level since mid-1993. The new figures showed housing starts set an annual pace of 1.191 million units in September, lower than the 1.285 million units expected by economists and the lowest figure since the March 1993 rate of 1.083 million units. Building permits fell 7.3 percent, the sharpest decline since January 1995, to an annual rate of 1.226 million. Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the Consumer Price Index, the most broadly used gauge of inflation, rose at a 0.3 percent rate last month after declining 0.1 percent in August. The rise was slightly larger than the 0.2 percent rise economists had predicted and was the largest since a 0.7 percent jump in May. So-called core prices, which exclude food and energy costs, were up 0.2 percent in September, in line with economists' expectations. Consumer prices in September were 2.8 percent higher than a year ago, the largest 12-month increase since a matching 2.8 percent gain in March, Labor Department officials said. Core prices were up 2.1 percent on a year-over-year basis. The poor figures had relatively little impact on the market, which was buoyed by stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings reports from U.S. blue chip companies including Coca-Cola Company and JPMorgan Chase & Company.
