US consumer prices rise moderately in March

US consumer prices rise moderately in March

Washington: US consumer prices barely rose in March as the cost of gasoline declined, but stubbornly high rents kept underlying inflation pressures simmering, likely ensuring that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates again next month. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) climbed 0.1 per cent last month after advancing 0.4 per cent in February, the Labor Department said on Wednesday. In the 12 months through March, the CPI increased 5.0 per cent, the smallest year-on-year gain since May 2021. The CPI rose 6.0 per cent on a year-on-year basis in February. The annual CPI peaked at 9.1 per cent in June, which was the biggest increase since November 1981, and is subsiding as last year’s large rises drop out of the calculation. Inflation by all measures remains more than double the Fed’s 2 per cent target. Gasoline prices are likely to rebound in the months ahead after Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ oil producers early this month announced further oil output cuts. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the CPI gaining 0.2 per cent and advancing 5.2 per cent year-on-year. The inflation data came on the heels of last Friday’s employment report, which showed a solid pace of job growth