Inflation Rate Highest in 4 Months
Consumer prices rose in January at the fastest pace in four months, especially pinching the wallets of drivers and other energy users.</br></br>The latest picture of the nation's pricing climate, released by the Labor Department yesterday, reinforced expectations that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his colleagues will increase interest rates in the months ahead to blunt inflation.</br></br>The government's most closely watched inflation barometer, the consumer price index, advanced by 0.7 percent, compared with a 0.1 percent dip in December. The seesaw pattern mostly reflects gyrating energy prices.</br></br>"Consumers continue to be battered by rising costs," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisers. "It's tough out there for most households."</br></br>A separate report showed that workers' average weekly earnings, adjusted for inflation, dropped by 0.4 percent in January compared with a year ago. For most workers last year, paychecks didn't keep pace with inflation.