BERNARD SHAW, CNN ANCHOR: New figures out today show inflation rose modestly last month. But when you add in surging energy costs, and the government's Consumer Price Index soared in June. CNN's Brooks Jackson has crunched the numbers for us -- Brooks.</s>BROOKS JACKSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bernie, we knew it was coming. Those high energy prices pushed consumer prices up sharply last month. The Labor Department's Consumer Price Index rose 0.6 percent. That's a bit more than expected. But the part Wall Street likes to watch, the core rate, which excludes energy and food prices, rose a modest 0.2 percent. Most analysts are saying inflation is still under control, not to worry, the Federal Reserve's policy of higher interest rates is working. But consumers still have to pay: gasoline up nearly 9 percent last month; natural gas up nearly 8 percent, the largest one- month increase on record; fuel oil up just 1.1 percent last month, but 47 percent higher than a year ago. Winter could be expensive. Airline fares and medical care also rose faster than the core rate, but there some declines as well. Fruits and vegetables: not only good for you but cheaper. Clothing is down, too, and new cars are also down just a bit. Personal computers were way down, 2.8 percent. And that pennies-a-minute price war for telephone service pushed overall telephone rates down 1.3 percent. So it's a mixed picture and doesn't tell us much about what lies ahead. Today, the optimistic analysts are still optimistic and the pessimists, the minority, are as gloomy as ever -- Bernie.</s>SHAW: Thank you, Brooks Jackson.
June Inflation Figures Show Modest Gain