Us Inflation Hits 8.5 After Surge In Petrol And Food Prices
Consumer prices rose 8.5 percent last month from a year earlier, slightly above Wall Street expectations, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Tuesday. The monthly gain was 1.2 percent, the fastest jump since September 2005 and a sharp acceleration from the 0.8 percent increase recorded in February. However, once volatile items such as food and energy were removed, the CPI “core” rose just 0.3 percent in March. This was the slowest rise since September, triggering a rally in overnight bond and finance markets as traders bet the Federal Reserve would not need to tighten policies to curb inflation as aggressively as markets expected....