March 12 (UPI) — The consumer price index increased 3.2% over the past year, remaining stubbornly higher than the Federal Reserve benchmark of 2%, but likely not enough to spark an interest rate increase, the U.S. Labor Department reported Tuesday.
The CPI for all urban consumers bumped up 0.4% in February as compared to January on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The statistics matched Dow Jones estimates, with economists predicting a 0.4% increase in prices over the past month, but slightly higher than the 3.1% year-to-year price increase experts forecasted.
The Labor Department blamed gasoline and housing for the price increase in February, saying those two indexes alone accounted for 60% of the month’s increases. The bureau also pointed out that the energy index jumped 2.3%.
In a small measure of good news, the CPI core index, which includes volatile food and energy prices, saw a 3.1% increase over the past year, a 1.9% decrease from this time a year ago.
