Inflation soared increased at the fastest rate since 1982, surpassing projections, the Labor Department announced Friday.
Energy prices have risen dramatically in the last year, up 33.3 percent since November 2020, including a 3.5 percent climb in November. Gasoline has increased 58.1 percent.
The consumer price index surged 0.8 percent for the month and 6.8 percent year-over-year, the highest rate of price increases since June 1982. The core CPI, which excludes the more volatile food and energy costs to depict a more balanced assessment of inflation, increased 0.5 percent for the month and 4.9 percent from a year ago, alone representing the sharpest uptick since the early 1990s.
The latest report ups the ante for the Federal Reserve, whose chairman Jerome Powell, in addition to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, recently abandoned the talking point that inflation is “transitory” due to the persistent hikes. To curb spiraling inflation, the Fed might be compelled to raise interest rates, which comes with its own economic implications.
The alarming price movements have not yet factored in the Omicron variant of Covid-19, only discovered just after Thanksgiving but expected to spread across the country, which could threaten to further disrupt supply chains, fueling prolonged inflation.
Source: National Review
