The consumer price index, which measures a wide-ranging basket of goods and services, increased 7.9% over the past 12 months, a 40-year high.
The February increase was at the fastest pace since January1982, when the country was in the depths of “stagflation,” a combination of high inflation and low growth.
On a month-over-month basis, the CPI gain was 0.8%. Economists had expected headline inflation to increase 7.8% for the year and 0.7% for the month.
Food prices rose 1% and food at home jumped 1.4%, both the fastest monthly gains since April 2020, in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Energy played a significant part in the overall increase. Energy prices rose 3.5% for February and accounted for about one-third of the headline gain. Shelter costs, which account for about one-third of the CPI weighting, accelerated another 0.5%, for a 12-month gain of 4.7%.
