Another surge in energy prices helped push U.S. underlying inflation up at the sharpest rate in 2-1/2 years during March, the Labor Department said on Wednesday in a report that rocked financial markets.
The Consumer Price Index was up 0.6 percent last month, the sharpest monthly gain since October, following a 0.4 percent rise in February. And the core rate that strips out volatile food and energy costs accelerated to a 0.4 percent increase in March from 0.3 percent in February the biggest monthly increase in core inflation since a matching 0.4 percent jump in August 2002.
