Southern California’s inflation rate hit a 28-month low in September.

My trusted spreadsheet looked at three local Consumer Price Indexes — Los Angeles and Orange counties, Inland Empire, and San Diego County — and combined them into a cost-of-living benchmark tracking the combined two-month averages of the metro area results.

From the CPI’s perspective, Southern California prices rose at a 2.4% annual pace in September. That’s the slowest rate of increase since February 2021, and it’s down from 4% a year ago. By the way, inflation’s most recent top was at 8.6% in May 2022.

Details

Now, look at the 12-month cost-of-living increases by metro area.

Los Angeles and Orange counties: This monthly index showed prices growing 2.8% in the year ended in September. Besides January 2024, this represents the lowest inflation rate since March 2021. It’s down from 3.2% a year ago and down from inflation’s recent high of 8.6% in July 2022.

Inland Empire: The bimonthly index showed 1.4% inflation in September, lowest since May 2020. Down from 4.9% a year ago and a high of 10% in April 2022.

San Diego: The bimonthly index showed a 2.5% rate in September, lowest since January 2021. Down from 4.7% a year ago and high of 8.3% in June 2022.

These cost-of-living cooldowns are in line with national trends. U.S. inflation ran at a 2.4% annual in September, the lowest since December 2020. It’s down from 3.7% a year ago and a high of 9% in June 2022.

The spin

The recent good news on inflation helped convince the Federal Reserve in September to end its tight-money policy that was throttling the economy. The central bank’s first interest-rate cut in four years is expected to be part of an extended period of falling financing costs.

Still, many shoppers still feel the pain of a cost of living that soared since the coronavirus upended the economy in early 2020.

In the past five years, consumer prices as measured by the CPI are up 23% across the nation and in the region, 25% in the Inland Empire and San Diego, and 21% in LA–OC.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com