Author: smarttalksucce

Gautam Adani has had a very good year.

The Indian billionaire briefly surpassed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to become the second-richest person in the world in September, according to Bloomberg. He’s now ranked as the world’s fourth wealthiest person.

Outside Southeast Asia, Adani is hardly a household name. That might be changing now that he’s richer than Microsoft founder Bill Gates and iconic investor Warren Buffett.

“The kind of rise that you have seen is truly phenomenal and probably unprecedented in the world that in such a short time a single individual has been able to acquire assets across industrial sectors and has emerged as one of the largest billionaires in the world,” said Hemindra Hazari, an independent research analyst based in Mumbai, India.

Coming from a middle-class family background, Adani began his entrepreneurial journey in the country’s financial capital, Mumbai, as a diamond sorter in the late 1970s. Adani is now chair of the Adani Group, one of the three largest industrial conglomerates in India.

Adani’s company representatives did not respond to several requests for comment from CNBC.

Why is Adani’s wealth on the rise? Watch the video above to learn more about how Adani’s political connections may have boosted the success of his many companies. 

Inflation in August was stronger than expected despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to bring down prices, according to data Friday that the central bank follows closely.

The personal consumption expenditures price index excluding food and energy rose 0.6% for the month after being flat in July. That was faster than the 0.5% Dow Jones estimate and another indication that inflation is broadening.

On a year-over-year basis, core PCE increased 4.9%, more than the 4.7% estimate and up from 4.7% the previous month.

Including gas and energy, headline PCE increased 0.3% in August, compared with a decline of 0.1% in July. It rose even with a sharp decline in gas prices that took the cost at the pump well below the nominal record above $5 a gallon earlier in the summer.

The Fed generally favors core PCE as the broadest indicator of where prices are heading as it adjusts for consumer behavior. In the case of either core or headline, the data Friday from the Commerce Department shows inflation running well above the central bank’s 2% long-run target.

Outside the inflation data, the numbers showed that income and spending continues to grow.

Personal income rose 0.3% in August, the same as July and in line with the estimate. Spending rose 0.4% after declining 0.2% the month before, beating the 0.3% expectation. After-tax income increased just 0.1% after rising 0.5% the previous month, while inflation adjusted spending rose 0.1%.

The inflation data reflected the shift in spending from goods back to services, which saw respective gains of 0.3% and 0.6% on the month. Food prices rose 0.8% while energy prices slid 5.5%. Housing and utilities prices were up 1% while health care rose 0.6%.

Markets showed little reaction to the news, with stock futures pointing to a slightly higher open on Wall Street.

The market, however, has been highly volatile as investors deal with the highest inflation since the early 1980s. To combat inflation, the Federal Reserve has enacted a series of interest rate increases this year totaling 3 percentage points, taking rates to their highest levels since early 2008.

However, with data showing that the rate hikes have yet to work their way through to bringing down prices, Fed officials have remained vigilant about the need to keep tightening policy.

Fed Chair Lael Brainard in a speech Friday morning cautioned against pulling back “prematurely,” saying rates will remain higher “for some time” until inflation is brought under control.