Americans hoping for some relief on inflation suffered a setback in February, as new data showed underlying price pressures intensifying even before the latest escalation in President Trump’s trade war and consumers pulled back on spending.

The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, after stripping out volatile food and energy items, climbed 2.8 percent in February from a year earlier, outpacing January’s annual pace, the Commerce Department reported on Friday. On a monthly basis, these “core” prices ticked up another 0.4 percent, higher than the monthly increase in January.