WASHINGTON - Consumer prices rose 0.4% in April on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department reported Friday, as energy costs continued to dominate the index.
Core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy rose 0.2%, the third increase of that size in the last four months.
Analysts had expected an increase double the actual number: 0.8%, according to the median of economists polled by Thomson Reuters. They were right on the core increase, however, predicting 0.2%.
Energy prices overall rose 2.2%, following a 3.5% increase in March. Gasoline prices were up 3.3% after a 5.6% rise in March. Gasoline prices alone accounted for almost half of the headline inflation number, according to the Labor Department analysis.
Food prices increased 0.4% overall, following a 0.8% increase in March.
In the core prices, new cars at a 0.7% rise and medical care up 0.4% were the leading contributors to the increase.
For the last 12 months overall inflation was 3.2% following a 3.7% increase in March. Core consumer prices over the year rose 3.2% after a 2.7% increase in March.
A 0.2% core price increase is small enough not to raise inflation anxieties at the Federal Reserve.
