WASHINGTON, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Consumer prices in the United States shot up 1.1 percent in July, the second biggest one-month increase in 26 years, pushed by soaring energy costs, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. 

    The May surge in overall prices was much worse than the 0.7 percent gain expected by analysts.

    Energy prices rose by 6.6 percent last month, the report showed. The rise was led by a 10.1 percent jump in gasoline.

    Food prices, meanwhile, increased by 0.7 percent in June as vegetable prices jumped by 6.1 percent, the biggest advance in nearly three years.

    The report also showed that "core" consumer prices, which exclude volatile energy and food costs, edged up a 0.3 percent last month, the biggest one-month rise since January.

    So far this year, consumer prices are rising at an annual rate of 5 percent, the largest year-over-year increase since a similar 5 percent jump in May 1991.

    Consumer prices measure inflation pressures at the retail level. The core prices have been watched closely by the Federal Reserve.

    Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has warned the economy faces "serious difficulties," and described strains from the deep housing slump, tight credit, and soaring energy and commodity prices.

    "It's a top priority of the Federal Reserve to run a policy that is going to bring inflation to a acceptable level consistent with price stability," he told Congress in a hearing on Wednesday.

    Worried about rising inflation, Federal Reserve officials at their meeting in June thought the Fed's next move on interest rates was likely to be up, according to minutes of their deliberations released Wednesday.