More signs of strong consumer spending in the world’s biggest economy point to a rise in inflation that will likely be harder for the world’s most important central bank to shrug off as a blip.

Consumer prices, as measured by the personal consumption expenditures price index and excluding volatile food and energy components, rose 0.7 per cent in April, the most since October 2001. Core PCE increased 3.1 per cent year-on-year, the biggest annual rise since July 1992. Both data points exceeded economists’ expectations.