U.S. consumer prices rose by 0.4 percent in April as gasoline prices surged for a second consecutive month, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.

The April rise in consumer inflation followed an increase of 0.6 percent in March and was slightly lower than expected.

In April, energy prices increased by 2.4 percent after advancing 5.9 percent in the previous month. Gasoline prices surged by 4.7 percent after having shot up by 10.6 percent in March.

Food prices rose by 0.4 percent in April, slightly more than the 0.3 percent gain in March.

While excluding volatile energy and costs, the core consumer prices edged up 0.2 percent in April, following a 0.1 percent rise in March. Prices for clothing, airline tickets and tobacco products all fell last month.

For the first four months of this year, consumer inflation has risen at an annual rate of 4.8 percent, compared with the 2.5-percent increase for all of 2006.

Core inflation, however, was up at an annual rate of just 2.2 percent during the period, marking an improvement from the 2.6-percent advance for all of 2006.

Source: Xinhua