Higher rents and food prices boosted overall US inflation in December, a sign that the Fed's drive to slow inflation to its 2% target will likely remain a bumpy one.
Thursday's report from the Labour Department showed that overall prices rose 0.3% from November and 3.4 % from 12 months earlier.
Those gains exceeded the previous 0.1 % monthly rise and the 3.1 % annual inflation in November. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core prices rose just 0.3% month over month, unchanged from November's rise.