U.S. consumer prices rose by 0.6 percent in March, the biggest increase since April 2006, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.

The 0.6 percent rise in the department's closely watched Consumer Price Index was led by a 5.9 percent jump in energy prices. That marked the largest one-month gain in energy costs since September 2005.

Over the past 11 weeks, the average price for gasoline has surged by 71.1 cents, according to a survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. A gallon of gasoline cost 2.876 dollars on average nationwide last week.

Food prices were up 0.3 percent in March.

Excluding volatile energy and food prices, the core consumer prices edged up 0.1 percent in March, the smallest gain in three months.

Analysts had been expecting a 0.7 percent increase for inflation at consumer level and a 0.2 percent gain for core inflation.

For the first three months of this year, U.S. consumer prices are rising at an annual rate of 4.7 percent, far above the 2.5 percent increase for all of 2006.

At an annual rate, energy prices shot up 22.9 percent in the first three months and food costs increased by 7.3 percent. Energy prices posted a 2.9 percent gain for all of 2006.

Source: Xinhua