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Consumer prices rose 3.5% in March compared to a year ago, accelerating markedly from the previous month and reversing some of the progress achieved in a two-year fight to cool inflation, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed. The finding matched economists' expectations.
Price increases have cooled dramatically from a peak of about 9%, but inflation still stands more than a percentage point higher than the Federal Reserve's target rate of 2%.
A spike in housing and gasoline prices at the outset of this year has helped prolong the nation's bout of elevated inflation. Meanwhile, economic performance has been robust, boosting consumer demand and putting upward pressure on prices.
The latest finding indicated an uptick from the 3.2% annual inflation rate recorded in February.
Core inflation -- a closely watched measure that strips out volatile food and energy prices -- increased 3.8% over the year ending in March, holding steady from the previous month, the data showed.
More than half of the monthly increase in consumer prices owed to an uptick in gasoline and housing costs, the BLS said.
Offering relief for households, the prices of some grocery staples dropped over the year ending in March. The prices of breakfast cereal, rice and pasta each fell more than a percentage point over that period.
Prices also dropped more than 4% for breakfast sausage and ham over the past year. Apple prices fell more than 10% over that period.
Beef prices, however, increased at more than double the pace of overall inflation over the past year.
