Consumer prices picked up in June and underlying inflation pressures showed signs of stabilizing.

U.S. consumer prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in June to mark the biggest increase since February, as the cost of gasoline, housing, medical care, clothing and food all rose, the Labor Department said Tuesday. The energy price index shot up 3.4%, spurred by a 6.3% gain in gasoline. Food prices rose 0.2%. The core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, also advanced 0.2%. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had forecast a 0.5% increase in the broad CPI and a 0.2 % gain in the core rate. Consumer prices have risen an unadjusted 1.8% over the past 12 months, up from 1.4% in May. Real or inflation-adjusted hourly wages, meanwhile, were flat in June. Real wages have risen just 0.4% over the past 12 months.

Other data yesterday showed industrial production pushed higher in June as manufacturing output found some momentum.

While both inflation measures remain below the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target, details of the report suggested the recent disinflation trend was fading, with medical care costs rising. Prices for new motor vehicles, apparel and household furnishings also increased.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who last month said the central bank would start cutting back the US$85 billion in bonds it is purchasing each month to keep borrowing costs low, has viewed the low inflation as temporary and expects prices to push higher.

Alan Ruskin, an analyst at Deutsche Bank in New York, said the report should “counter arguments that there is a material deflation risk.”