Price pressures persisted last month as the core component of the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure came in hotter than economists expected.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that inflation in the February personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price index was unchanged at 2.5 percent.
PCE inflation rose by 0.3 percent for the third consecutive month.
Prices for goods jumped by 0.2 percent, while services inflation surged by 0.4 percent.
Core PCE inflation, which removes the volatile energy and food prices, ticked up to 2.8 percent from an upwardly adjusted 2.7 percent in the previous month.
On a monthly basis, core PCE rose at a higher-than-expected pace of 0.4 percent, up from 0.3 percent in January….