While the underlying index, which excludes food and energy prices from its calculation due to their greater volatility, closed with an increase of 2.8%, in line with the previous month's data.

The United States personal consumption expenditure price index, the statistic chosen by the Federal Reserve (Fed) to monitor inflation, stood at 2.7% year-on-year in the month of March, two tenths more than in February. as revealed this Friday by the Office of Economic Analysis of the Department of Commerce.

The underlying index, which excludes food and energy prices from its calculation due to their greater volatility, closed the third month of 2024 with an increase of 2.8%, in line with the data from the previous month. For its part, the amount of groceries grew by 1.5% and the energy bill became more expensive by 2.6%.

In monthly rates, both the general variable of the index and the underlying variable experienced increases of 0.3%, which in both cases also equaled the February readings.

To deal with the rise in prices, the Federal Reserve (Fed) raised interest rates eleven consecutive times since March 2022 and stopped said cycle in July 2023. In this way, they are now within the target range of between 5 .25% and 5.5%, its highest level since January 2001.

At its last meeting on March 20, the Fed chose to maintain the reference rate and indicated that it did not expect it to be "appropriate" to reduce it until it gained greater confidence that inflation was steadily returning to 2%.