{"id":91108,"date":"2026-04-30T13:49:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T13:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/91108\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T13:49:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T13:49:18","slug":"a-key-inflation-gauge-jumps-in-march-as-iran-war-driven-gas-prices-squeeze-budgets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/91108\/","title":{"rendered":"A key inflation gauge jumps in March as Iran war-driven gas prices squeeze budgets"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A key inflation measure jumped in March as gas prices soared<\/a>, the latest sign that the Iran war is pushing up the cost of living and delaying any interest rate cuts<\/a> by the Federal Reserve. <\/p>\n

An inflation gauge monitored by the Fed rose 0.7% in March from February, up sharply from the previous month, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Compared with a year ago, prices rose 3.5%, the biggest increase in almost three years. <\/p>\n

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation rose 0.3% in March from February, and it was 3.2% higher than a year earlier. The annual figure is above February\u2019s reading of 3%.<\/p>\n

The jump in gas prices has pushed inflation further away from the Fed\u2019s 2% target. Outgoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell<\/a> signaled at a news conference Wednesday that the central bank would likely be on hold for months as it evaluates the impact of the Iran war. The Fed has kept its key short-term interest rate unchanged after cutting it three times last year. The central bank typically keeps rates elevated \u2014 or even raises them \u2014 to combat higher inflation. <\/p>\n

Gas prices jumped nearly 21% in March from the previous month, the report said, while grocery prices actually slipped 0.1%. Clothing costs climbed 1% just in March.<\/p>\n

The average price of a gallon of gas nationwide rose to $4.22 a gallon Thursday, according to AAA, up from $2.98 before the war began. U.S. oil prices cooled a bit Thursday morning but still topped $105 a barrel, up from about $67 before the war. <\/p>\n

Still, the Fed typically pays more attention to core prices, and how much higher energy costs feed through to core inflation in the coming months will be a major factor in how the central bank decides on its next moves. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very well aware that people are experiencing higher gas prices all over the country now,\u201d Powell said Wednesday. \u201cAnd that hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s report also showed that consumer spending soared 0.9% last month, with most of the increase reflecting the sharp jump in prices. But it also indicates Americans lifted their spending a bit even after adjusting for inflation, a sign of consumer resilience.<\/p>\n

The economy expanded at a modest 2% annual rate<\/a> in the first three months of the year, the Commerce Department also said Thursday, up from an expansion of just 0.5% in last year\u2019s final quarter, when growth was held back by the six-week government shutdown. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A key inflation measure jumped in March as gas prices soared, the latest sign that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2371,325,328,2443,2276,780,197,1004,34,61,196,2222,32200,782],"class_list":{"0":"post-91108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-2024-2026-mideast-wars","9":"tag-ap-top-news","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economic-policy","12":"tag-energy-markets","13":"tag-federal-reserve-system","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-inflation","16":"tag-iran","17":"tag-iran-government","18":"tag-iran-war","19":"tag-oil-and-gas-industry","20":"tag-u-s-department-of-commerce","21":"tag-u-s-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116493979689534797","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}