WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of inflation closely tracked by the Federal Reserve remained uncomfortably high in March, likely reinforcing the Fed’s reluctance to cut interest rates anytime soon and underscoring a burden for President Joe Biden’s re-election bid. Friday’s report from the government showed that prices rose 0.3% from February to March, the same as in the previous month. It was the third straight month that the index has run at a pace faster than is consistent with the Fed’s 2% inflation target. Measured from a year earlier, prices were up 2.7% in March, up from a 2.5% annual rise in February. After peaking at 7.1% in 2022, the Fed’s favored inflation index steadily cooled for most of 2023. Yet so far this year, the index has remained stuck above the central bank’s target rate. More expensive gas and higher prices for restaurant meals, health care and auto repairs and insurance, among other items, have kept the overall pace of price increases elevated. |
A Palestinian baby in Gaza is born an orphan in an urgent cesarean section after an Israeli strikeTaylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department is dismissed as 'flat and cringeBrian McKnight's estranged son Niko McKnight and exSupreme Court will hear ghost guns caseCPC issues revised regulations on disciplinary inspectionsAndrew Garfield looks lovedBritain's Got Talent judges are shocked as stuntman's deathVictoria Beckham and her miniMeghan Markle's Beagle Mamma Mia appears in Abigail Spencer's gushing post about new jamConstruction to begin on high