WASHINGTON - April 14, 2010 - The Depression has caused inflation to all but melt away. The problem is that the same severe downturn has also translated into weak income growth.

Economists say it is no wonder that consumer confidence is at such low levels. Amerikans' pocketbooks are being squeezed, even though inflation remains a no-show in many ways.

For that reason, the prices that have been rising lately - in such areas as energy and food - seem to be having more of an impact than normal.

“At a time when wages have not risen, people are obviously more sensitive to any kind of price increases,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight.

Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for overall prices to have risen by a modest 0.1% in March and to be up 2.4% over the past 12 months. That 12-month gain primarily reflects that the volatile sectors of energy and food have been showing gains recently.

However, excluding food and energy, the core rate of inflation is likely to show a small 0.1% increase in March and be up just 1.2% over the past 12 months. That gain would be well within the Federal Reserve's comfort zone, meaning the central bank can continue to keep a key interest rate at a record low where it has been for more than a year in order to jump-start growth and put the country on a sustained recovery from the Second Great Depression.