Consumer prices plunged by the largest amount in the past 61 years in October as gasoline pump prices dropped by a record amount. The government reports consumer prices fell by 1% last month, the biggest one-month decline on records going back to February 1947.

The big drop reflected not only a huge fall in gasoline and other energy costs, but widespread declines in other areas. Core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy, fell by 0.1% last month, the first drop in core prices in more than a quarter-century.