April 17, 2003 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Consumer prices up 0.3 percent in March

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 0.3 percent in March, following an increase of 0.6 percent in February.

[Chart data—TXT]

Energy costs again rose sharply—up 4.6 percent in March—and accounted for over 90 percent of the advance in the overall CPI-U. Within energy, the index for petroleum-based energy advanced 4.3 percent and the index for energy services increased 5.0 percent.

The index for food rose 0.2 percent in March, following a 0.7-percent rise in February. The index for food at home, which increased 0.9 percent in February, rose 0.1 percent in March. The moderation was largely as the result of a markedly smaller increase in the index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs. The index for all items less food and energy was unchanged in March after increasing 0.1 percent in both January and February.

For the 12-month period ended in March, the CPI-U rose 3.0 percent. 

These data are from the BLS Consumer Price Index program.  Find out more in "Consumer Price Indexes, March 2003" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 03-175.