The largest monthly jump in gas prices in six decades caused a sharp spike in inflation in March, creating major challenges for the inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve and heightening the political hurdles for the White House.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in March from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Friday, up sharply from just 2.4% in February and the biggest yearly increase since May 2024. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.9% in March from February, the largest such increase in nearly four years.
It’s the first read on inflation to capture the effects of the Iran war. The spike in gas prices will stretch the budgets of many lower- and middle-income households as it erodes their incomes, making it harder to afford other necessities such as food and rent
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