Inflation Soars to 6.2%--5-Yr. High

Consumer prices jumped 0.4% in March, pushing inflation to an annual rate of 6.2%, the highest in five years, the Labor Department said today in a report that raised fears that spiraling prices are making a comeback.

The biggest price jump for clothing in 13 years and continued higher fuel and energy prices spurred the new surge in the consumer price index.

But economists noted that virtually every category of goods and services showed increases, suggesting that the inflation long threatened by the sharply falling value of the dollar has arrived.

Economists said the 6.2% pace--nearly six times last year’s inflation rate of 1.1%--probably is ahead of the 5% rate Americans can expect for the rest of 1987. The Reagan Administration has projected that consumer prices will advance by just 3% this year.

Equals February Increase

The Labor Department said March’s 0.4% price hike was identical to the February increase.

In a related report, the Commerce Department said personal incomes rose 0.2% in March, the weakest gain in four months and a sharp drop from February’s 1.3%.

At the White House, presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said that while the inflation figure was higher than the Administration’s prediction, it should slow as energy costs work their way through the economy.

“While this is something to watch, it’s not something to be alarmed about,” Fitzwater said.

Not a ‘Great Surprise’

Lawrence Chimerine of Wharton Economics in Philadelphia said the Labor Department report “wasn’t any great surprise. . . . We’re likely to see numbers like this for the rest of the year.”

But Cynthia Latta of Data Resources Inc., in Lexington, Mass., said the increase was not as sharp a change from last year’s 1.1% total increase as it might seem. She said similar price increases occurred last year but were masked by falling energy prices--a trend that has ended.

The sharp 1.7% rise in clothing prices was attributed to new spring fashions, but the falling value of the dollar also made imports more expensive.

Gasoline prices rose by 2.3% in March and have risen 13.7% so far this year, the government said. Despite those increases, however, gas prices still were 5.9% below March, 1986, levels and 31.2% below their peak level of March, 1981.

But the increases were tempered by falling food prices, down 0.1% overall. Grocery store food prices fell by 0.4%.