Headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) shows that consumer prices in March saw the largest monthly gain since 2022 as the US-Israel war against Iran sent gas prices skyrocketing past $4 a gallon.

Besides, inflation clocked in 3.3 per cent higher than a year ago while rising 0.9 per cent on a monthly basis in a rapid acceleration from February’s levels, according to Labor Department data released Friday.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had anticipated a 3.4 per cent increase from a year ago and 0.9 per cent from a month prior. The spike was almost entirely driven by a rise in energy costs as the war left the vital Strait of Hormuz largely closed.

The gasoline index alone soared 21.2 per cent, which the Labor Department said accounted for almost three-quarters of the monthly gain and was the single-largest monthly increase since the government began tracking the series in 1967.

New Century Advisors chief economist Claudia Sahm said: “We’re kind of living through a whiplash economy.” And more pain might be on the way, with March’s print only showing the earliest impacts of the war.

“The market was braced for a hot print, so today’s inline number is a slight relief,” Alexandra Wilson-Eli- zondo, multiasset solutions global co-head at Goldman Sachs Asset Management said.

She added, “However, it may be the best headline inflation number we see for a while as it may only partially capture the full force of the Iran conflict, which sent US crude and US gas up 70 per cent at peak.”