This story on the March 2026 CPI inflation report is developing and will be updated with further details.
Inflation surged in March as consumer prices jumped amid the economic disruptions caused by the Iran war’s impact on the energy market.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday said that the consumer price index (CPI) – a broad measure of how much everyday goods like gasoline, groceries and rent cost – rose 0.9% from a month ago and is 3.3% higher than last year. The annual figure jumped from last month’s 2.4% reading, while the monthly increase also rose markedly from last month’s 0.3% reading.
Both the 0.9% monthly increase and 3.3% annual rise were in line with the expectations of economists polled by LSEG.
So-called core prices, which exclude volatile measurements of gasoline and food to better assess price growth trends, were up 0.2% on a monthly basis and 2.6% from a year ago. Both of those figures were slightly cooler than economists’ predictions of 0.3% and 2.7%, respectively.
The core CPI figures were slightly hotter than February’s readings, which showed prices rose 0.2% on a monthly basis and 2.5% from the prior year.
