Consumer prices jump more than forecast

Rise is the biggest in 19 months for prices excluding food and energy, a worrying sign for the Fed.

Consumer prices rose in January, fanning concerns that high inflation may keep the Federal Reserve from maintaining its aggressive interest rate-cutting campaign.

The Consumer Price Index, a key inflation reading, rose 0.4% last month, according to the Labor Department. That matched the 0.4% jump recorded in December and exceeded the 0.3% rise economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast.

The more closely watched core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.3%, representing the biggest jump in 19 months. Economists had expected a 0.2% rise after a 0.2% jump in December.

The rise in January left overall prices 4.3% above where they were 12 months earlier, up from the 4.1% rise on that basis in December.

Food prices were much higher in January. A recent driver of inflation, food prices jumped 0.7% from a 0.1% rise in December, the largest monthly increase since last February.

Read Complete Story