Consumer prices excluding the volatile food and energy components soared by 3.1 percent in the year to April, surging past the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target and reaching levels not seen in nearly 30 years. The so-called core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, which excludes food and energy and is the Fed’s preferred method for gauging inflation, rose 0.7 percent in April after rising 0.4 percent in March, the Commerce Department said on Friday. The core PCE rise of 3.1 percent in the year to April was above economists’ forecasts of 2.9 percent, with May 1992 being the last time this inflation gauge saw a similar year-over-year vault. The Fed looks to core PCE as the key inflation gauge that informs its monetary policy, which has an inflation target of a longer-run average of 2 percent. Fed officials have repeatedly said they believe the current bout of inflation is “transitory” and …