Consumer Prices

WASHINGTON — Americans got some relief in October as the cost of living fell, mainly because of lower prices for gasoline, fruits and vegetables, the government reported. The Labor Department said Wednesday that the consumer price index dropped a seasonally adjusted 0.1% last month. The decline reduced the 12-month increase in consumer prices to 3.5% from 3.9% in September. The core rate of inflation, meanwhile, rose 0.1% for the second straight month, but it marked the lowest back-to-back increases of 2011.

WASHINGTON - U.S. consumer prices slid in March after spiking in the prior month as gasoline prices fell back - the latest indication that inflation remains subdued despite the Federal Reserve's continued action to pump billions of dollars into the financial system.  The consumer price index, seasonally adjusted, sank 0.2% last month from February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday. The drop was bigger than some analysts expected and followed an unusually steep monthly increase of 0.7% in February.

The government reported fresh signs of a weakening job market, even as consumers got some relief from falling energy prices that led to a sharp drop in inflation in May. The combination of rising jobless claims and easing consumer prices should give the Federal Reserve more reason to inject new monetary stimulus into the economy, although few analysts expect the central bank to pull the trigger at its next policy meeting Tuesday and Wednesday.  ...

WASHINGTON -- Fueled by the rising cost of gasoline, consumer prices jumped 0.7% in February for the biggest increase in more than three years, the Labor Department said Friday. The sharp rise in consumer costs last month, which exceeded analyst expectations, could stoke inflation concerns as economic growth strengthens. Prices now have risen 2% over the past year, the target the Federal Reserve has set for an acceptable inflation rate. Prices were up 1.6% in the previous 12-month period.

WASHINGTON - U.S. consumer prices slid in March after spiking in the prior month as gasoline prices fell back - the latest indication that inflation remains subdued despite the Federal Reserve's continued action to pump billions of dollars into the financial system.  The consumer price index, seasonally adjusted, sank 0.2% last month from February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday. The drop was bigger than some analysts expected and followed an unusually steep monthly increase of 0.7% in February.

The prices paid by consumers for a variety of goods and services were unchanged in November, mainly because of declining energy costs, government data showed Friday. The Labor Department said the consumer price index was flat last month, matching the forecast of economists surveyed by MarketWatch. After spiking earlier this year, overall inflation has begun to moderate in conjunction with declining prices of key commodities, such as oil, that play a significant role in the cost of consumer goods and services.

WASHINGTON -- Add slowing retail sales to the story of the payback for the warm winter weather. The Commerce Department said Tuesday that retail spending in April rose a tiny 0.1% from the prior month, seasonally adjusted. Details of the report made clear that the unusually mild winter had pulled some spending forward -- resulting in a spring correction, as was also seen in job growth last month. A separate government report Tuesday showed consumer prices, after three straight months of increases, were unchanged in April, thanks to lower fuel costs.

Forget deflation. U.S. consumer prices jumped in January for the second month in a row, and it wasn't just soaring costs for gasoline and food. Americans are beginning to pay more for clothes, rent and travel, new data released Thursday showed. Rising prices are not welcomed by consumers, but they're acceptable for Washington policymakers, up to a point, anyway. That's because higher inflation lowers the government's real cost of paying the huge interest charges on the national debt.

The prices that U.S. consumers pay for goods and services fell slightly in June, mainly because of lower gasoline costs, the government reported Friday. The consumer-price index dropped a seasonally adjusted 0.1%, the third straight monthly decline, according to Labor Department data. The closely followed core prices, seen as a better gauge of inflationary trends, rose 0.2% for the biggest gain since October 2009. Yet core inflation, which excludes particularly volatile food and energy prices, is still very low. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had predicted a flat reading in overall consumer prices and a 0.1% increase in the core rate.

WASHINGTON — The cost of living rose again in March even as the price of gasoline leveled off, the U.S. government reported Friday. The consumer price index climbed 0.3% last month as the cost of most goods and services rose, the Labor Department said. The increase outstripped the rise in wages. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected a 0.2% increase in the cost of living. Prices rose for a wide variety of goods. Energy costs, for example, climbed 0.9% last month, though that was far smaller than February's 3.2% increase as gas prices eased.

WASHINGTON -- Despite worry in some corners about the Federal Reserve's stimulus efforts stoking inflation, there continues to be little indication that consumer prices are heading higher. The consumer price index was flat in January for the second month in a row, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. A drop in gas prices and a halt to recent gains in food prices held down the overall index. Compared with a year ago, the consumer price measure for January was up a mild 1.6%.

BEIJING - China's coldest winter in nearly three decades sent vegetable prices soaring and drove inflation to a seven-month high in December. Consumer prices rose 2.5% from December a year earlier, China's National Bureau of Statistics said Friday, up from 2% year-over-year growth in November. A key reason for concern is that rising inflation could restrict China's ability to stimulate growth if its tepid recovery loses momentum. Higher food prices also worry the Chinese government because discontent rises when poorer people have to pay a bigger share of their income on food.

Conservatives argue that Washington never cuts programs, it just increases spending on them more slowly than planned. But to recipients of federal benefits, that type of "cut" can seem just as painful. That's why there is an intense battle looming over a proposal to reduce the cost-of-living adjustments applied to numerous federal programs, including Social Security. The change is billed as a more accurate way to calculate the effects of inflation, but it's really just a way to make Washington's financial picture marginally brighter.

WASHINGTON -- Cheaper gasoline led to the first drop in consumer prices in six months in November, signaling that inflation remains in check as the Federal Reserve continues its stimulus attempts. The consumer price index fell 0.3% last month from October, the Labor Department said Friday, slightly beating analyst expectations. The decline was driven by a 7.4% plunge in the government's gasoline price index. Consumer prices hadn't fallen since May. And after two flat months in June and July, they had been rising as gas prices increased through the late summer and fall.

Consumers trying to re-create the classic holiday song “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” in which a true (and loaded) lover goes to town buying some very odd gifts, will have to shell out more than they ever have before. Want a partridge in a pear tree along with a menagerie of other fowl? Five gold rings? A battalion of maids, ladies, lords and more? Time to withdraw $25,431.18 from the bank account, according to PNC Wealth Management's 29th  annual survey . That's a 4.8% increase from last season, after a 3.5% increase in 2011 and a 9.2% leap in 2010.

Consumer prices continued to rise in October as rents and the cost of food climbed even as gas came down from its recent peak, the government said. Seasonally adjusted prices got a 0.1% boost in October from the previous month, according to the Labor Department. But the increase was smaller than the 0.6% surges in September and August. October's prices were up 2.2% from the year-earlier period. Quiz: How well do you know fast food? The cost of food went up 0.2% last month from September, according to the report, with meat, poultry, fish, eggs, fruits and vegetables all experiencing price hikes.

Meat-eaters worldwide consumed less protein last year, due in part to disease outbreaks and drought that have shrunk livestock herds. The average human ate 93.3 pounds of meat last year, down from 93.7 pounds in 2010 after a decades-long upswing, according to environmental research group Worldwatch Institute . Still, since 1995, average consumption is up 15%. Though the long-range growth in meat-eating is slower in industrialized countries...

Our national nightmare is over. Fears of an ongoing shortage of peanuts and hence peanut butter (which, if it isn't a food group, should be) have been alleviated by a record peanut crop. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the 2012 peanut harvest should hit 6.1 billion pounds, topping the 2008 record of almost 5.2 billion pounds. The increase has cut peanut prices by more than half since the spring, prompting makers of peanut butter to say retail prices should come down in coming months.