If you feel like everything has been costing more lately, it's not just in your head.
The Consumer Price Index for February rose 7.9% from a year ago, according to data from the U.S. Labor Department. It's the largest increase since January 1982.
The biggest factors in the increase are gas prices, groceries and housing costs, the department said.
The government's report shows that gasoline prices jumped 38% over the past year. The increase doesn't include the oil and gas price surges that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Associated Press noted. The average national gas price on Tuesday hit a nearly 14-year high when pump prices climbed to $4.17 per gallon, according to AAA.
Food prices also jumped 8.6% over the past 12 months, the largest yearly increase since April 1981, according to the report. Prices of meats, poultry, fish and eggs increased 13%, while the price of beef saw a 16.2% increase. The price of dairy products also went up by 5.2%. Prices of "food away from home" spiked 6.8% over the last year as well, the largest increase since December 1981.
The cost of housing also saw its biggest yearly increase since May 1991, with a 4.7% increase.
Automobiles, both new and used, were hit with a large price hike over the past year. The report shows the cost of used cars and trucks rose 41.2%, while new vehicle prices went up 12.4%.
Airline fares also increased by nearly 13%.
Analysts say the numbers show inflation is unlikely to reverse anytime soon.
"The numbers are eye-watering, and there is more to come," Eric Winograd, senior economist at asset management firm AllianceBernstein, told the AP. "The peak in inflation will be much higher than previously thought and will arrive later than previously expected."
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine only complicates matters, according to Kathy Bostjancic, chief U.S. financial economist with Oxford Economics.
"The Russia-Ukraine war adds further fuel to the blazing rate of inflation via higher energy, food, and core commodity prices that are turbocharged by a worsening in supply chain problems," Bostjancic told CBS News.
With no signs that inflation is slowing, Jeffrey Roach, the chief economist for LPL Financial, said households will likely be tightening the purse strings if they haven't already.
"Unfortunately, we're going to see the American consumer that lives paycheck to paycheck breaking much faster than the middle class and upper middle class," Roach told NBC News. "A spike in commodity prices will affect lower-income households much faster and to a much greater degree."
The CPI measures the change in prices paid by consumers for goods and
services -- food, clothing, shelter, fuels, transportation, doctors’ and dentists’ services, medications and other things people buy for day-to-day living. It reflects the spending patterns of almost all residents of urban or metropolitan areas, according to the government. Not included in the CPI are the spending patterns of people living in rural non-metropolitan areas, farming families, people in the Armed Forces, and those in institutions, such as prisons and mental hospitals.
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