Consumer prices surge, job market remains strained

WASHINGTON—Inflation nationally is running at the fastest pace in 17 years, but the Boston area is being hit particularly hard.

The federal Labor Department reports that consumer prices in greater Boston jumped 6.3 percent in the last year, the greatest jump in any metropolitan area. It's the biggest increase in the region since 1990.

Nationally, inflation increased by 5.6 percent over the past year, the largest 12-month jump since the period ending in January 1991.

The local jump is blamed primarily on increases in home heating oil and lodging.

Food prices, however, increased at below the national rate.

Goods tend to cost more in the Boston area because the region is far from the centers of food and energy production.