MARCH 2026 CONSUMER PRICE INDEX

Written by Michael Thervil

MARCH 2026 CONSUMER PRICE INDEX | CHART COURTESY OF THE U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS

[March 2026 Consumer Price Index] Looking at the surface of the march’s CPI (Consumer Price Index) categories “All Items”, “Food”, and “All Items Less Food and Energy” appear to remain flat at 3.3%, 2.7%, and 2.6% respectively. The only category that excelled was “Energy” which grew to 12.5%. Looking at “Food”, the biggest winner would be “Food Away From Home” which stood at 3.8% while “Food At Home” stood at 1.9%. Drilling down into “Food At Home”, “Cereals and Bakery Products” rose to 2.1%, while the biggest growth was seen in "Nonalcoholic Beverages and Beverage Materials” which grew to 4.7%. The next largest increase for the month of match in this cub category was “Fruits and Vegetables" which grew to 4.0%, followed by “Other Food At Home” which stood at 2.9%. “Meats, Poultry, Fish, And Eggs” fell into the negative at -0.9% in terms of growth and so did “dairy and related products” which fell to -1.6%.

Drilling down into the “Food Away From Home” sector, both “Full Service Meals and Snacks” and “Limited Service Meals and Snack” both displayed growth with “Full Service Meals and Snacks” showing the bigger signs of increase at 4.3% and “Limited Service Meals and Snacks” growing to 3.2%. In the “Energy” sector, it would be “Energy Commodities" that would be the winner with growth jumping to 19.4% followed by “Energy Services” which showed very modest growth at 5.0%. Going deeper into the “Energy Commodities” sector, “Fuel Oil” led in terms of growth for the month of march with growth surging to 44.2% growth while “Gasoline All Types” went up to 18.9% in terms of growth.

When it came to “Energy Services” “Natural Gas (Piped)” took the lead with 6.4% growth last month over “Electricity” which stood at 4.6%. In the last category, “All Items Less Food and Energy” “Services Less Energy Services” grew to 3.0% as "Commodities Less Food and Energy” showed modest signs of growth to 1.2%. Observing “Commodities Less Food and Energy” the trend of “Tobacco and Smoking Products” continued to dominate with growth to 7.4% followed by “Apparel” which stood at 3.4%. “Alcoholic Beverages” stood at 1.7%. “New Vehicles” and “Medical Care Commodities” stood flat at 0.5% and 0.3% respectively. The biggest loser in this subcategory for the month of march would be “Used Cars and Trucks” which fell to -3.2%.

The last subcategory for "Services Less Energy Services" showed that “Shelter”, “Medical Care Services” And “Transportation” services all stood relatively in proximity in terms of growth for the month of march. “Shelter” grew to 3.0%, the lowest in terms of growth for the subcategory, followed by “Medical Care Services” which grew slightly above it at 3.7% and the reigning king in this subcategory would be “Transportation Services” which grew the most at 4.1%. Despite rising inflation and the escalation of the price of oil and gas, it appears that the Consumer Price Index remained steadfast for the month of March. Any dips in any of these categories or subcategories would most likely be seen in next upcoming Consumer Price Index.