Another Historic Inflation Report

💵📈 The Consumer Price Index, the most widely used measure of inflation, saw its highest annual gain in 40 years last month, increasing 7.9% compared to a year ago.

• Excluding volatile food and energy components, prices rose 6.5% year-over-year, including the largest-ever increase in new cars and trucks (12.4%).
• The index for used vehicles was one of the only categories to see a monthly decrease, though it's still up more than 41% on the year.
• Gas prices jumped 6.6% from January to February, accounting for almost ⅓ of the CPI’s monthly increase; they’re expected to rise even further in the March report following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
• The average national price of gas has risen over 19% this month to reach $4.32 per gallon, the highest in US history (not adjusted for inflation).

👀 Looking ahead… The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point after its two-day meeting next week, ending two years of near-zero rates. 

+Dig deeper: How does raising interest rates impact inflation?