Prices for goods and services moved up less than expected in February, providing some relief as consumers and businesses worry about the looming impact tariffs might have on inflation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. The consumer price index, a wide-ranging measure of costs across the U.S. economy, ticked up a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.8%, according to the Labor Department agency. The all-item CPI increased 0.5% in January.
Excluding food and energy prices, the core CPI also rose 0.2% on the month and was at 3.1% on a 12-month basis, the lowest reading since April 2021. The core CPI had climbed 0.4% in January. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 0.3% increases on both headline and core, with respective annual rates of 2.9% and 3.2%, meaning that all the rates were 0.1 percentage point less than expected.
Source: CNBC
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