Soaring prices for crude oil spurred U.S. consumer inflation to increase at the fastest pace in three months in July.

The U.S. Labor Department today said its consumer-price index rose 0.5% last month, the biggest increase since April, and was 3.2% higher than a year ago. The so-called core index, which excludes food and energy items, rose by a moderate 0.1% for the third month in a row — 2.1% higher than last year.

Economists had called for a 0.4% increase in the overall CPI, and a 0.2% rise in the core index.

The new data suggest the U.S. Federal Reserve is unlikely to change course in the near term. The central bank has raised its key federal-funds rate 10 times since June 2004, lifting it to 3.5% in increments of a quarter percentage point.

Overall energy prices climbed 3.8% in July, the biggest increase in three months. In a month when crude-oil prices averaged a record $59 a barrel, gasoline prices climbed 6.1%, also marking the biggest increase in three months. Natural-gas prices rose 3.8%.

Food prices also rose at the fastest pace in three months, climbing 0.2%. Housing prices rose 0.4%, marking the biggest increase since March. Medical-care prices rose 0.4%, also the biggest increase since March. But prices of new automobiles registered the biggest decline in more than 30 years, falling 1%.

Separately, the Labor Department said the average weekly earnings of U.S. workers, adjusted for inflation, fell 0.2% in July. That marked the first decline in three months.

Meanwhile, U.S. industrial production rose modestly in July, restrained by declines in mining and consumer goods output, the Federal Reserve said today. Production edged up just 0.1% after rising a revised 0.8% in June. Capacity utilization fell 0.1% in July to 79.7% from a revised 79.8% in June.

Also today, the U.S. Commerce Department said new residential construction fell 0.1% in July to a seasonally adjusted 2.042 million annual rate, June housing starts increased a revised 2.045 million from May’s 2.041 million rate.

Permits for future building rose by 1.6% in July to a 2.167 million annual rate. Permits increased a revised 3.4% in June to 2.132 million.