Key takeaways: 

• The customer price index for February increased 7.9% from a year back, the most increased level since January 1982.
• Besides food and energy, both of which pushed sharply higher during the month, core inflation still grew 6.4%, in line with anticipations but the highest since August 1982.
• Gas, groceries, and shelter were the most significant contributors to the CPI growth. Auto costs reduced.
• Worker wages dropped further behind, as inflation-adjusted earnings fell 0.8% in February, contributing to a 2.6% reduction over the previous year.

Inflation rose to 7.9% in Feb 2022: 

Inflation rose worse in February amid the escalating problem in Ukraine and cost pressures that became more entrenched.

The customer price index, which calculates a wide-ranging basket of goods and services, rose 7.9% over the previous 12 months, a new 40-year high for the near followed gauge, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The February acceleration was the most rapid pace since January 1982, when the U.S. economy faced the twin danger of higher inflation and decreased financial growth.

On a month-over-month basis, the CPI increase was 0.8%. Economists observed by Dow Jones had predicted headline inflation to rise 7.8% for the year and 0.7% for the month.

Food prices increased 1%, and food at home bounced 1.4%, both the quickest monthly earnings since April 2020, in the earlier days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Energy also was at the forefront of ballooning costs, up 3.5% for February and accounting for nearly one-third of the headline increase. Shelter prices, which account for almost one-third of the CPI weighting, accelerated another 0.5%, for a 12-month peak of 4.7%, the most rapid yearly growth since May 1991.

Besides volatile food and energy costs, so-called core inflation grew 6.4%, increasing the most since August 1982. Every month, core CPI was up 0.5, constant with Wall Street anticipations.