BOSTON (State House News Service) — Consumer prices in the Greater Boston region were up 1.5 percent across February and March, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday attributed the increase to higher prices for shelter and other items aside from food and energy.
The price of shelter was up 2.5 percent for the two-month period, including an increase in the price of lodging somewhere other than at a home. Medical care costs (up 3.5 percent) and airline fares also drove an overall increase of 1.8 percent in the price of goods other than food and energy, BLS said.
While energy prices were up 1.3 percent for the two months ending in March (gas prices rose 1.8 percent and household energy prices were up 1 percent), food prices were down 0.6 percent. Prices for food at home decreased 0.8 percent and prices for food away from home ticked down 0.1 percent.
The "Boston-Cambridge-Newton" region (which includes Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth, and Suffolk counties in Massachusetts as well as Rockingham and Strafford counties in New Hampshire) saw a 3.3 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index from March 2023 to March 2024, BLS said. Nationwide, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers increased 3.5 percent over the last 12 months, BLS said Wednesday.
The 3.3 percent increase from March 2023 to March 2024 represents a slower rate of growth than the 7.3 percent increase from March 2021 to March 2022 and the 4.7 percent increase between March 2022 and March 2023.'
Written by Colin A. Young/SHNS.
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