Sticker shock: March inflation likely set new 40-year high

By PAUL WISEMAN
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — With ever-rising costs for food, gasoline, housing and other necessities squeezing consumers and threatening the economy, inflation in the United States likely set yet another four-decade high in March. The government’s consumer price index being released Tuesday is expected to show that prices shot up 8.4% from 12 months earlier, according to economists surveyed by the data firm FactSet. That would mark the fastest year-over-year inflation since December 1981. The March numbers will be the first the capture the full surge in gasoline prices that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Moscow’s brutal attacks have triggered far-reaching Western sanctions against the Russian economy and have disrupted global food and energy markets..