Mubasher: US consumer price index (CPI) rose markedly in January, beating analysts’ forecasts, data by the US Bureau of Labour Statistics showed on Wednesday.

Prices grew 0.5% during the first month of 2018, compared with a seasonally adjusted growth of 0.2% in December.

Economists, polled by Wall Street Journal (WSJ), had expected a slighter increase of 0.4% in January.

Meanwhile, core prices, which exclude the volatile components of food and energy, accelerated 0.3% in January, compared with 0.2% in the previous month and versus economists’ expectations of a 0.2% rise.

Overall Inflation rate over the 12 months ended January remained steady at 2.1%, while core prices accelerates to 1.8%, having posted a 1.7% increase in the 12 months ended December.

By 01:58 pm GMT, the EUR/USD pair slipped 0.36% to $1.2307.