Consumer prices moved higher in August, offering fresh evidence that U.S. inflation may be firming after years of sluggish price growth.

The consumer-price index, which measures what Americans pay for everything from ice cream to college textbooks, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in August from the prior month, the Labor Department said Friday. Excluding the often-volatile categories of food and energy, so-called core prices rose 0.3%, the largest increase since February.

The strong gains reflected a sharp increase in medical-care prices—up 1%, the largest one-month jump in the category since February 1984.

Signs of stronger inflation would be welcome news at the Federal Reserve, which has seen U.S. price growth undershoot its 2% annual target for more than four years. Still, investors expect the Fed to hold short-term interest rates unchanged at its policy meeting next week.

One reason for Fed caution came from the University of Michigan, which reported Friday that U.S. consumer expectations for future inflation softened this month. The survey showed Americans expected inflation to register at 2.3% over the next year, the weakest reading in six years, and expectations for inflation five to 10 years out remained at a record low of 2.5%.