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Despite last month’s decline, food costs are still up more than 8% in the past year. And restaurant prices, up 0.6% from February to March, have risen nearly 9% from a year ago.
Yet prices are still rising fast enough to keep the Federal Reserve on track to raise interest rates at least once more, beginning in May
Prices rose just 5% in March as measured from a year earlier, the mildest increase in nearly two years.
The government said Wednesday that consumer prices rose just 0.1% from February to March, down from 0.4% from January to February and the smallest increase since December.
Consumer inflation eased in March, with less expensive gas and food providing some relief to households that have struggled under the weight of surging prices.