The Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation rose again in January and a new report from the central bank warned that price pressures could persist unless a shortage of available workers begins to ease.

The new inflation data, alongside the developing sense at the central bank that inflation may prove harder than anticipated to dislodge, will likely firm the central bank's intent to raise interest rates through the year, beginning with an initial hike in March from the current near zero level.

Policymakers will have to weigh one fresh and unanticipated set of risks in their discussion: The Russian military invasion of Ukraine could roil the economic outlook in unpredictable ways, and potentially undermine global growth and financial markets.

But Fed officials say that's unlikely to shift their immediate plans to begin tightening monetary policy in response to inflation that is not only high but continues moving higher.

The personal consumption expenditures price index rose at a 6.1-percent annual rate through January, its highest since 1982 and more than triple the 2-percent inflation rate the Fed has set as its target for the U.S. economy.

That measure of annual inflation, reported monthly by the government, has been as higher or higher than in the prior month for 14 straight months - a run not seen since the 1970s and a blow to arguments commonly heard at the Fed last year that rising prices would prove "transitory" and disappear as the economy reopened.

The month-to-month change in the same index, watched by some officials as a signal of moderation, showed no sign of easing.

In the Fed's latest monetary policy report to Congress, issued twice a year, central bank officials acknowledged that inflation had not eased as they expected, but in fact had broadened through the economy.

The "extraordinary circumstances" which the Fed had said last July were driving higher prices had given way to other dynamics, the report said, particularly a workforce falling far short of the numbers demanded by businesses to fill open positions.

"In the period ahead, the large price changes in goods may ease once supply chain disruptions finally resolve," the Fed report stated. "But, if labor shortages continue and wages rise faster than productivity in a broad-based way, inflation pressures may persist and continue to broaden."