Labor Dept: March Prices Rose 8.5% Over Last Year

The Washington Post reports:

Prices rose 8.5 percent in March compared with a year ago, the largest annual increase in four decades, as Russia’s war in Ukraine drove up energy prices even higher and policymakers launched a major effort to get soaring inflation under control.

The inflation data, released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showed prices rose 1.2 percent in March compared with February. Just a few months ago, officials at the White House and Federal Reserve hoped that inflation was starting to tick down month by month.

But those projections were quickly dashed by Russia’s invasion, covid shutdowns at major Chinese manufacturing hubs, and the bleak reality that inflation continues to spread through every crevice of the economy.

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Prices climbed 8.5% in the year ending in March, amid growing fears that inflation will cause a broad economic slowdown https://t.co/sIQyStWTDm

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 12, 2022