The Consumer Price Index increased by 0.5% in March, matching expectations, to an index value of 223.467 (1982-84=100), after increasing by 0.5% in February and 0.4% in January. This is the ninth consecutive monthly increase, led by rises in food and fuel prices which have still not impacted other goods and services. Over the year the CPI has increased by 2.7% before seasonal adjustment, the highest year-over-year increase since December 2009. The food index increased by 0.8%, the highest increase since July 2008, after increasing by 0.6% in February and 0.5% in January and is up by 2.9% over the year. Energy Prices increased by 3.5%, the highest since December 2010, after increasing by 3.4% in February and 2.1% in January and are up 15.5% over the year. The gasoline index rose 5.6% in March after a 4.7% increase in February. Excluding food and energy prices, the Core CPI increased by 0.1%, after increasing by 0.2% in both January and February.
Net Foreign Purchases for February decreased to $26.9 billion, following a January decrease of $51.5 billion from $65.9 billion in December. Net foreign purchases of long-term U.S. securities were $32.4 billion, $12.2 billion of which were from private foreign investors and net purchases by foreign official institutions were $20.2 billion. U.S. residents purchased a net $5.5 billion of long-term foreign securities.
Industrial Production increased by 0.8% to an index value of 93.6 (2007=100) in March, higher than the expected 0.6% increase, following a 0.1% increase in February. Manufacturing output increased by 0.7% in March, marking the fourth consecutive month of strong expansion. Industrial production increased by 6.0% for the first quarter while factory production rose at an annual rate of 9.1% during the same period. Over the year, the industrial production index is up by 5.9%. Capacity Utilization increased to 77.4% for February from 76.9% in February and was 3.0 percentage points below its average for the period from 1972 through 2010. In March 2010, Capacity Utilization was measured at 72.8%.
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