Figures on US inflation for September will finally be published on Friday, just a few days before policymakers at the Federal Reserve take their hotly anticipated December decision on interest rates.

The figures — long delayed by the federal government shutdown — are expected to show the headline price index of personal consumption expenditures rising 0.3 per cent month on month in September, according to a Reuters poll of economists, in line with the rate in August. Year on year, the PCE price index is expected to have risen 2.8 per cent, up slightly from 2.7 per cent in August.

The Reuters poll shows core PCE inflation — the central bank’s preferred measure, as it excludes volatile food and energy prices — holding steady at 0.2 per cent month on month and 2.9 per cent year on year, unchanged from August.