The Fed will fly blind for a second interest-rate meeting in a row

The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Friday that it was nixing a standalone release of the October inflation report since it wasn’t able to collect the data in real-time. Instead, the agency said it will include partial data on consumer prices “where possible” in November’s report, now postponed to Dec. 18.

The BLS attributed the cancellation to the seven-week government shutdown that halted virtually all its data-gathering activities. Upon the federal government reopening last week, the agency has been scrambling to catch up and set new release dates for the November employment and inflation reports.

The BLS announcement means that the Federal Reserve will enter its two-day meeting on Dec. 9 and 10 equipped with September’s inflation and employment reports as the latest data on hand. The U.S. economy added 119,000 jobs in September, according to delayed data released on Thursday.

The agency earlier this week also cancelled the October jobs report because it was unable to send out the household surveys that are a key component of the report last month. Retroactively sending those surveys risks muddying the economic statistics with inaccurate responses.

The nixed reports come as the Federal Open Market Committee, tasked with steering interest rates at the Fed, splinters over how to proceed.

Recent FOMC minutes released Wednesday of the two-day September meeting said “participants expressed strongly differing views” about the appropriate action to take in December. Some officials favor another interest rate cut while others are urging caution and sitting still for the last meeting of the year to avoid disrupting the U.S. economy.

Supporters of a third interest rate cut this year received a boost from New York Fed President John Williams, who’s viewed as aligned with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

During a Friday speech commemorating the 100th anniversary of Chile’s central bank, Williams said he continues seeing “room for a further adjustment in the near term” on interest rates, signaling support for another reduction.