Atlanta Fed Survey Shows Business Cost Expectations Fell to 2.3%

Businesses in the Federal Reserve’s Sixth District expected their own unit costs to rise 2.3% over the next 12 months in October, down from 2.4% in September. The October survey was dated Oct. 21, 2026.

The year-ahead reading remained above the survey’s 2.0% average from January 2017 through December 2019 and below its 3.8% peak in April 2022. The decrease from September was 0.1 percentage point.

A separate measure of year-over-year unit-cost growth averaged 2.6% in October, unchanged. The survey tracks firms’ expected cost growth at their own businesses in the Sixth District; it is not a measure of consumer inflation nationwide.