Inflation throughout the Riverside metropolitan area jumped nearly a full percentage point over the previous two months, based largely on major increases in energy costs triggered by the Middle East war, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The agency’s bimonthly report, based on metrics for western Riverside County and the cities of Ontario and San Bernardino, indicated that the Inland Empire’s Consumer Price Index was up .8%.
BLS officials said the principal driver behind the increase was retail gasoline prices, which jumped 30% between late February and the end of March. That in turn pushed the energy component of the CPI up 15.4% for the entire two-month period.
Other contributors to the upward trajectory were the general “goods and services” and “recreation” — such as theme parks — components of the index, which advanced 2.2% and 3.2%, respectively.
Conversely, food expenses trended downward throughout the region in February and March, slipping .4%, and costs associated with educational outlays were additionally lower by 3.9%, according to the BLS.
Nationwide, the overall CPI registered a .9% increase for the month of March. The impetus, again, was energy costs.
“The index for energy increased 10.9%, the largest monthly increase in the index since September 2005,” according to a BLS statement Friday. “The gasoline index increased 21.2% over the month, the largest monthly increase since the series was first published in 1967.”
In the Inland Empire, the year-over-year CPI was 3.1%, measuring a host of economic inputs from March 2025 to March 2026, data showed.
The most notable upward pressures in the annualized CPI were reflected in the energy and healthcare components of the regional index, moving up 13.4% and 5.9%, respectively.
The report showed inflation was up 3.3% nationwide on an annualized basis.
The current rate of inflation reflects the price trajectory impacting most sectors of the economy.
Energy price shocks that began in the last weekend of February and have continued almost unabated since are directly connected to commodities markets and oil trading, which turned bullish immediately after the joint Israel-U.S. military operations against Iran, beginning with a missile attack on a children’s school, where almost 200 Iranians were killed. The nation’s supreme leader and multiple members of his family were also assassinated.
Iran counterattacked and additionally declared a quasi closure of the Strait of Hormuz, where tankers carrying nearly one-fifth of the world’s energy supplies must pass. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has characterized the narrow Persian Gulf sea lane as a “chokepoint.”
A tentative “ceasefire” went into effect earlier this week, and per-barrel spot market prices on oil have retreated, with futures contracts on the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate Crude currently trading just below $100.
Accelerating consumer price hikes have also been blamed on loose monetary policy and excessive federal spending, decaying the dollar’s purchasing power.
The national debt is now $38.98 trillion, according to the congressional Joint Economic Committee’s “Debt Dashboard.” Some projections indicate the debt load will almost double in 10 years or less, according to published reports.
Fortune magazine said this week that the monthly federal payments just to cover interest on the debt are $88 billion.