LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – New data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed a 0.4% month-to-month rise in the seasonally adjusted CPI for all urban consumers (CPI-U). The seasonally unadjusted CPI-U is up 6.0% from February 2022, in line with the Dow Jones forecast.

Shelter accounted for over 70% of the February increase, alongside rising prices of food, recreation, and household furnishing and operations.

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The index for all items less food and energy also rose 0.5%, following a 0.4% increase in January. Higher prices of shelter, recreation, household furnishing and operations, and airline fare categories were responsible for the increase.

“Housing costs are a key driver of inflation figures, but they are also a lagging indicator,” Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS, told CNBC. “It typically takes six months for new rent data to be reflected in the CPI. The quirk in how housing cost data are collected contributes to overstating current inflation.”

The energy index fell 0.6% from January, as natural gas and fuel oil indexes both declined, but was still up 5.2% from last year. The monthly indexes for medical care and for used cars and trucks also declined by 0.7% and 2.4% respectively.

The East North Central Region, which includes Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin, saw a 0.4% increase from January to February in the seasonally unadjusted CPI-U, in line with the national average.

Data for the broader Midwest Region, which also includes Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and North and South Dakota, showed a decrease in the prices of some foods but an overall increase of 0.3% in the seasonally unadjusted CPI for food and beverages. Fuel and utilities in the Midwest Region were down 1.5% from last month, and medical care was down 0.2%.