February 23, 2006 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Consumer prices in January

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) advanced 0.7 percent in January 2006, following declines in each of the previous two months.

[Chart data—TXT]

Energy costs increased 5.0 percent in January, its first advance since September and accounted for about 70 percent of the advance in the overall CPI-U. Within energy, the index for petroleum-based energy increased 5.7 percent and the index for energy services rose 4.2 percent.

The food index rose 0.5 percent in January after increasing 0.1 percent in December. Increases in fresh fruit and vegetable prices accounted for more than half of the 0.5 percent rise in the index for food at home.

The index for all items less food and energy increased 0.2 percent in January, following a 0.1 percent increase in December, reflecting upturns in the indexes for new vehicles and for apparel.

For the 12 months ended in January 2006, the CPI-U rose 4.0 percent, as shown in the chart.

These data are from the BLS Consumer Price Index program. To learn more, see "Consumer Price Index: January 2006" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 06-317.