Gas Prices, Inflation | featured news

Rising food costs and higher rents offset a drop in gas prices last month, leaving consumer prices only slightly higher in October compared with the previous month.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The economy came under pressure from abroad in September as weak global demand appeared to hold back factory output and a surge in gasoline prices dented consumers' spending power, data showed on Tuesday.

A second month of sharp gains in gasoline costs drove wholesale prices higher in September. But outside of the surge in energy, prices were well contained.

Consumer prices were flat in June as the cost of gasoline dropped, offering some relief for cash-strapped Americans and scope for the Federal Reserve to ease monetary policy further to help the faltering recovery.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Consumer prices rose modestly in March amid signs a spike in gasoline costs was ebbing, but inflation still outpaced workers' earnings and threatened to undermine consumer spending.

In another sign that higher gas prices are squeezing consumers, the government's monthly measure of inflation rose in February at the strongest pace since last April.

Higher gas costs drove U.S. wholesale prices up last month. But excluding the big jump in gas, inflation was mostly tame.

Inflation may have peaked after surging in the spring.

Consumers paid more for food and gas last month, although inflation outside those volatile categories was tame. The Labor Department says the Consumer Price Index rose 0.3 percent in September, below a 0.4 percent rise in August. Excluding food and energy, so-called core prices increased 0.1 percent, the smallest rise since March.

Consumer prices fell slightly more than expected in June to post their biggest drop in a year on weak gasoline costs, government data showed on Friday, pointing to a cooling in commodity-driven inflation pressures.