Inflation rose slightly in July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday.
Consumer prices were up 0.2 percent annually through the month, following a slightly lower-than-expected monthly gain of 0.1 percent.
Annual inflation had been just 0.1 percent in June.
July’s consumer price increases were driven in large part by a steep rise in the cost of housing, which is now up more than 3 percent over the past year, in the biggest yearly gain since January of 2008.
Outside of shelter, however, there were few signs of inflation pressures. Health care and clothing prices rose slightly in the month. Prices for flights, cars and trucks, and furniture, on the other hand, were all down.
Low inflation has provided consumers with greater purchasing power in recent months, thanks in large part to the collapse in the price of oil over the past year.
But it has also posed an obstacle to the Federal Reserve, which is waiting for evidence that inflation is rising to its 2 percent target before moving to raise interest rates and tighten monetary policy.
There are some signs that prices will rise, which Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen and others expect as the unemployment rate continues to fall.
Stripping out energy and food costs, inflation was much higher, at 1.8 percent in July. That rate of “core inflation” was unchanged from June. Economists view core inflation as more predictive of future inflation than the headline number, because the prices it doesn’t include are some of the more volatile ones.
And energy prices have begun rising again. Although oil prices are still down nearly 30 percent from a year ago, energy prices have now risen for three straight months.
A number of Fed officials have said that they anticipate inflation to head back up after the effects of the more than 50 percent decline in oil prices over the past year filter through the statistics.
That appears to be the case in July’s data, which showed that the annual rate of inflation has been increasing since April.
Members of the Fed will see the release of the Consumer Price Index report for August, due September 16, on the morning of the start of their next monetary policy meeting.
