Rising gasoline and housing prices led inflation to increase 0.4% in February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Tuesday.
The food index was unchanged in February, as was the food at home index.
Meanwhile, a recent report on consumer spending from Mastercard found that retail sales excluding autos were up in February, with online retail sales up more than 9.1%.
The Census Bureau is scheduled to release retail sales for February on Thursday with analysts looking for a strong 0.8% increase after January's drop.
“A dip in retail sales to start the calendar year is common, however, this year January retail sales marked the biggest decline since March of last year,” said Chip West, retail and consumer behavior expert at Vericast.
Persons:
” Joseph Brusuelas, ”, Chip
Organizations:
of Labor Statistics, Federal, “ Services, RSM, Mastercard, Apparel, Bureau, Federal Reserve Bank of, Blue
Locations:
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta