Consumer Prices Only Rose 5% in March

Consumer Prices , Only Rose 5% in March.

'The Hill' reports that Labor Department data released on April 12 shows inflation continues to cool.

Consumer prices fell from an annual increase of 6% in February to 5% in March.

Prices only rose 0.1% on a monthly basis.

The numbers are slightly better than economists' predictions of a 5.1% annual increase and 0.2% monthly increase.

Grocery prices dropped from a 10.2% annual increase to an 8.4% annual increase.

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Core inflation, which doesn't account for food and energy, increased 5.6% annually.

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The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates nine times since last March.

While labor demand continues to be strong, inflation still outpaces wage growth for much of the country.

The change in real average hourly earnings combined with a decrease of 0.9% in the average workweek resulted in a 1.6% decrease in real average weekly earnings over the period, U.S. Labor Department, via report