The Boston region fared only slightly better than the rest of the country when it comes to inflation, with the cost of shelter cited as a driving force behind an uptick in consumer prices through February and March and over the last year.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the price of shelter was up 2.5% in the Greater Boston region over the last two months alone, including an increase in “lodging away from home,” which includes the cost of hotels.

“Prices in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton area, as measured by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), rose 1.5% for the two months ending in March 2024,” the Bureau said in a release.

Regional Commissioner William Sibley, according to the Bureau, “noted that the latest increase was attributed to higher prices for items other than food and energy, including shelter.”

Over the past year, the CPI-U for Boston is up a total of 3.3%. The cost for all items excepting food and energy rose at 4.4%.

“Shelter prices rose 7.6%, including increases in owners’ equivalent rent (5.8%), residential rent (7.0 %), and lodging away from home. Higher over-the-year prices for other goods and services (5.3%) and motor vehicle insurance also contributed to the annual change,” the Bureau wrote.

Not that you probably didn’t notice, but the price of food is still up — though apparently the rate of increase has come down slightly.

“Food prices declined 0.6% for the two months ending in March. A 0.8-% decrease in prices for food at home was accompanied by a 0.1-% decline in prices for food away from home. Within the at-home component, prices decreased in three of the six grocery categories. Over the year, food prices increased 3.5%. Prices for food away from home rose 6.8%, and grocery food prices advanced 1.9%,” the Bureau said.

Household energy was way down over the last year, falling a full 13.1% and driven by a 23.5% drop in the cost of electricity and fuel oil. Gasoline prices have fallen just slightly in the last year, down 0.8%.

The year-to-year indexes for the Greater Boston Region — that’s Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth, and Suffolk counties in Massachusetts, and Rockingham and Strafford counties in New Hampshire, according to BLS — are just slightly better than those seen nationally. Across the country, prices outside food and energy rose 0.4% from February to March and at the same pace seen in January. Core prices are up 3.8% from a year earlier, unchanged from the year-over-year rise seen in last month’s report.

According to Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide, “the lack of moderation in inflation will undermine Fed officials’ confidence that inflation is on a sustainable course back to 2% and likely delays rate cuts to September at the earliest and could push off rate reductions to next year.”

Herald wire service contributed.