U.S. consumer prices posted the biggest monthly gain since 2012 on a rebound in gasoline costs, though inflation remained subdued more broadly amid the pandemic.
The consumer price index jumped 0.6 percent in June from the prior month, the first increase since February, after a 0.1 percent drop in May, Labor Department figures showed Tuesday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 0.5 percent increase. Compared with a year earlier, the gauge increased 0.6 percent.
Gasoline prices jumped 12.3 percent and accounted for more than half the gain in the overall CPI. Even with the sharp increase, gas prices are down 23.4 percent from June 2019.
Click here to read the full Bloomberg report in the Los Angeles Times.
Excluding volatile food and fuel costs, the so-called core CPI rose a more moderate 0.2 percent, restrained by a slowdown in rents, from the prior month after a 0.1 percent decrease in May. On an annual basis, core inflation increased 1.2 percent for a second month.