NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - U.S. consumer prices rose in December, the government said Thursday, matching Wall Street forecasts.

The Labor Department reported that the consumer price index (CPI), a broad measure of prices paid by consumers, rose 0.2 percent after falling 0.2 percent in November. Economists, on average, expected CPI to rise 0.2 percent, according to Briefing.com.

Excluding volatile food and energy prices, the so-called "core" CPI rose 0.1 percent after falling 0.1 percent in November. Economists expected core CPI to rise 0.1 percent, according to Briefing.com.

"It's clear that, even though the economy is growing fairly rapidly ... it's not generating any price pressures," Morgan Stanley senior economist Bill Sullivan told CNNfn. "This may permit interest rates to edge lower."

YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS Inflation Economy or Create your own Manage alerts | What is this?

Separately, the Commerce Department said retail sales grew again in December, but at a slower pace than analysts expected, and the Labor Department reported a slight decline in new weekly claims for unemployment benefits.

The reports had little impact on U.S. stock market futures, which continued to point to a negative opening on Wall Street. Treasury bond prices fell, pushing yields higher.

Despite steady economic growth since the end of 2001, when the latest recession ended, and despite a blistering rate of growth in the third quarter, inflation has stayed low, according to many measures, enabling the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low.

November's decline in core CPI was the first since December 1982. In the 12 months ended in December, core CPI rose just 1.1 percent, matching the slowest pace since May 1963.

In Thursday's report, food prices posted the biggest jump, rising 0.6 percent after rising 0.4 percent in November. And energy prices posted their first gain since September, rising 0.2 percent after falling 3.0 percent in November.

But apparel prices fell 0.4 percent after falling 0.5 percent in November, and transportation costs fell 0.2 percent after falling 1.3 percent in November.

Education costs rose 0.4 percent, health care costs rose 0.6 percent and housing prices rose 0.3 percent.