The U.S. Labor Department's Consumer Price Index increased by 0.4 percent in February compared with 0.1 in January and higher than the 0.3 percent expected by economists. The February increase in the consumer price index, which is the government?s measure of the average change in the prices of goods and services, represents the highest jump in the core CPI since September, and is the biggest increase in the overall CPI since October.
See "Faster rise in consumer prices", CNN, March 22, 2005