Inflation has biggest one-month gain since 2005

Food and gas prices have soared in the past year, and overall inflation jumped by 0.9 percent in March from February, the biggest one-month gain since 2005, according to a report by the U.S. Commerce Department. Excluding volatile food and energy categories, “core prices” rose 5.2 percent in March from a year earlier. A separate report Friday from the Labor Department showed that in the past year, wages and benefits have climbed by 3.7 percent after adjusting for inflation.

Will it slow down soon? The climbing price of gas drove inflation last month as price increases for other goods began to taper off. People are also switching from buying goods, which was at a high during the pandemic, to paying for services as pandemic restrictions fade. This helps restrain inflation because prices are rising more slowly for services than goods. The Federal Reserve plans to make a series of interest rate hikes in the coming months to try to curb inflation further.

Dig deeper: Read Emily Whitten’s article in WORLD Magazine about eating on a budget.