U.S. consumer prices are expected to rise more than 8 percent in March as energy and food prices soar due to Russia’s war on Ukraine, bolstering expectations that the Federal Reserve will take more aggressive action to stem the highest inflation in 40 years.

Compared with March 2021, the consumer price index is expected to rise 8.4% last month, the last time it rose in January 1982, according to a consensus forecast compiled by Bloomberg.

The monthly gain was estimated at 1.2%, the fastest gain since September 2005 and a sharp acceleration from a 0.8% gain Register in February.

After excluding volatile items such as food and energy, the “core” CPI is expected to rise 0.5% in March. That was in line with February’s increase, but would push annual growth to 6.6%.

Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, reflects the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which sent food and energy prices sharply higher.

The Biden administration on Monday blamed the war for the expected surge in prices, with White House press secretary Jen Psaki saying CPI readings were expected to be “abnormally high due to Putin’s price hike.”

Psaki noted that gasoline prices have averaged more than 80 cents a gallon since the invasion, which she said will drive most of the increase.

Inflation expectations have also risen, and a new monthly survey by the Federal Reserve’s New York branch on Monday showed U.S. households are bracing for more severe price pressures.

Next year, consumers expect inflation to hit 6.6. %, an increase of 0.6 percentage points over the previous period. Expectations for the three-year outlook fell slightly but remained high at 3.7%.

Fears that inflation will take root in the world’s largest economy have prompted the U.S. central bank to tighten monetary policy more aggressively in recent weeks.

The Fed is now poised to raise rates by 0.5 percentage points at its next policy meeting in May, twice the pace of its March rate hike, as it tries to raise its benchmark policy rate to a more “neutral” level. Neither will help or limit growth through the end of the year.

Officials forecast the rate at 2.4%, which would mean at least another 5 percentage point increase in addition to four 25 percentage point hikes in 2022.

The central bank will also start Shrinking its $9 trillion balance sheet Next month, for about 3 months starting in May, the holdings will increase by as much as $95 billion per month.