U.S. Inflation
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Inflation rose more than expected in January as stubbornly high shelter prices weighed on consumers, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. The consumer price index, a broad-based measure of the price’s shoppers face for goods and services across the economy, increased 0.3% for the month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. On a 12-month basis, that came to 3.1%, down from 3.4% in December. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a monthly increase of 0.2% and an annual gain of 2.9%. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, the so-called core CPI accelerated 0.4% in January and was up 3.9% from a year ago, unchanged from December. The forecast had been for 0.3% and 3.7%, respectively.