{"id":425648,"date":"2026-04-30T18:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T18:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/425648\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T18:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T18:54:11","slug":"the-biggest-jump-in-3-years-gas-effect-on-core-inflation-in-march-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/425648\/","title":{"rendered":"The biggest jump in 3 years: gas’ effect on core inflation in March revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

A key inflation measure jumped in March as gas prices\u00a0soared<\/a>, the latest sign that the Iran war is pushing up the cost of living and delaying any\u00a0interest rate cuts<\/a>\u00a0by the Federal Reserve.<\/p>\n

An inflation gauge monitored by the Fed rose 0.7% in March from February, up sharply from the previous month, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Compared with a year ago, prices rose 3.5%, the biggest increase in almost three years.<\/p>\n

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation rose 0.3% in March from February, and it was 3.2% higher than a year earlier. The annual figure is above February\u2019s reading of 3%.<\/p>\n

The jump in gas prices has pushed inflation further away from the Fed\u2019s 2% target.\u00a0Outgoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell<\/a>\u00a0signaled at a news conference Wednesday that the central bank would likely be on hold for months as it evaluates the impact of the Iran war. The Fed has kept its key short-term interest rate unchanged after cutting it three times last year. The central bank typically keeps rates elevated \u2014 or even raises them \u2014 to combat higher inflation.<\/p>\n

Gas prices jumped nearly 21% in March from the previous month, the report said, while grocery prices actually slipped 0.1%. Clothing costs climbed 1% just in March.<\/p>\n

The average price of a gallon of gas nationwide rose to $4.22 a gallon Thursday, according to AAA, up from $2.98 before the war began. U.S. oil prices cooled a bit Thursday morning but still topped $105 a barrel, up from about $67 before the war.<\/p>\n

Still, the Fed typically pays more attention to core prices, and how much higher energy costs feed through to core inflation in the coming months will be a major factor in how the central bank decides on its next moves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very well aware that people are experiencing higher gas prices all over the country now,\u201d Powell said Wednesday. \u201cAnd that hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s report also showed that consumer spending soared 0.9% last month, with most of the increase reflecting the sharp jump in prices. But it also indicates Americans lifted their spending a bit even after adjusting for inflation, a sign of consumer resilience.<\/p>\n

The economy expanded at a\u00a0modest 2% annual rate<\/a>\u00a0in the first three months of the year, the Commerce Department also said Thursday, up from an expansion of just 0.5% in last year\u2019s final quarter, when growth was held back by the six-week government shutdown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A key inflation measure jumped in March as gas prices\u00a0soared, the latest sign that the Iran war is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,12614,61,1095,60],"class_list":["post-425648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-gas","tag-ie","tag-inflation","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}