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By the numbers:

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• On an annual basis, prices of necessities like electricity (8.4%), food at home (7.1%), and housing (8.1%) rose.

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• Gas, despite the monthly bump up, declined on an annual basis (12.2%).

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Be smart: This is a status quo report, which, given the persistently high levels of inflation, is bad news. Particularly concerning is that core prices remain above the rate of overall inflation.

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• Housing prices are keeping core prices up, and they should ease later in the year, which should help take pressure off core price increases.

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Looking ahead: The Federal Reserve is likely to pause interest rate hikes to give the rapid increase in rates time to work to bring prices down. But if core prices remain stuck around their current level, it will likely need to restart rate hikes to push it down.