Inflation picked up in July, reversing the decline in prices seen in the prior month.
The consumer price index 2.9 in July from a year earlier, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday. In June, the government’s main inflation index was up three percent from a year earlier.
For the month, prices rose 0.2 percent, a reversal from the prior month’s 0.1 percent decline.
Economists had forecast prices to be up three percent for the year and 0.2 percent for the month.
The index for shelter rose 0.4 percent, accounting for nearly 90 percent of the increase. Rents increased by a sharp 0.5 percent for the month, defying predictions that rental inflation would continue to ease. Owners’ equivalent of rent, which is meant to capture changes in the price of homeownership, rose 0.4 percent.
