Gasoline Prices Push Cpi Higher

Consumer inflation was up 0.3 percent last month, pushed higher by another jump in gasoline prices and the biggest increase in the cost of natural gas in nearly 14 years.

The Labor Department reported Wednesday that the May increase in its Consumer Price Index was a tad slower than the 0.4 percent gains registered in both March and April.

For the first five months of this year, consumer prices are rising at an annual rate of 4.1 percent, sharply above the 2.5 percent increase turned in for all of 1995.

But excluding food and energy, the so-called core rate of inflation was rising at an annual rate of 3 percent, matching the increase for all of 1995.

Analysts said there were signs that the sharp jump in energy prices seen so far this year was already abating as ample world supplies of oil have sent crude prices down by $5 per barrel, a change they predicted motorists would soon start noticing at the pump.