COST OF LIVING: Recession's Inflation

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While most economic indexes were, unhappily, edging downward, the cost of living, just as unhappily, was still edging upward. Last week the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the consumer price index went up 0.2% during February to a new inflation high of 122.5 (vindex of 100 in 1947-49). Sharpest rise in the recession month's inflation was the advance of 0.4% in food prices, caused mostly by fresh fruit and vegetable shortages after the harsh winter freeze in Florida and the Deep South. Food prices are not likely to head downward, said the Bureau of Labor Statistics, until spring-grown fruits and vegetables reach the market in May or June.