Inflation Steady at 2.4% in February

Washington, DC, March 11, 2026-The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis in February, after rising 0.2% in January, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Over the last 12 months, the all-items index increased 2.4% before seasonal adjustment.

The index for shelter rose 0.2% in February and was the largest factor in the all-items monthly increase. The food index increased 0.4% over the month as did the food at home index, while the food away from home index rose 0.3%. The index for energy also increased in February, rising 0.6%. 

“Consumer prices rose 2.4% in February from a year earlier, the Labor Department reported Wednesday,” said the Wall Street Journal.

“That compared with 2.4% in January and was even with what economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected.

“Core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy items, rose 2.5% from a year earlier, in line with expectations.

“Prior to the launch of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran on Feb. 28, Wednesday’s inflation report would have been a key reading, shaping expectations for Federal Reserve policy in the months ahead. It has been transformed by the conflict into something more like a baseline-the reading against which economists will measure whatever the war does to prices in the months ahead.”