MW: U.S. CPI up 0.4% in August on higher gas prices
By Rex Nutting
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - U.S. consumer prices increased a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in August, pushed higher by a 9.1% increase in gasoline prices, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. In the past 12 months, the consumer price index has fallen 1.5%, largely because energy prices have dropped 23% over that period. Core consumer prices - which exclude food and energy prices to get a better look at underlying inflation - rose 0.1% in August. The core CPI is up 1.4% in the past year, the smallest year-over-year gain since February 2004. Both the CPI and the core CPI came in a tenth of a percentage point higher than estimated by economists surveyed by MarketWatch ahead of the report.
