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Inflation spiked in March as the Iran war pushed up gasoline and other prices for consumers.
The consumer price index, a key inflation measure, rose 3.3% in March from a year earlier, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. That’s up from 2.4% in February.
The March data release represents the first CPI report since the Iran war started on Feb. 28, and illustrates the financial fallout for consumers from the first month of fighting in the Middle East.
While the U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire late Tuesday, economists said the inflationary effects of the war will likely take several weeks or months to unwind — and that a prolonged conflict risks raising consumer prices more broadly, to areas like food, airfare and manufactured goods.
