Inflation took a fresh swipe at American consumers in May, with the consumer price index surging by 5 percent over the past year, the biggest annual spike in the measure since 2008.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures overall inflation of the U.S. dollar, rose 0.8% in April, capping off the largest 12-month jump in prices since the period ending September 2008 after the beginning of the Great Recession.
U.S. consumer prices have soared above economists’ predictions and by the most in more than a decade, as fiscal stimulus and booming demand pushed against supply constraints, potentially fueling market fears of a prolonged bout of higher inflation.
The Labor Department reported Wednesday that the Consumer Price Index, a measure of prices paid for goods and services, including housing and energy costs, rose 4.2% from where it was a year ago. Economists had predicted only a 3.6% increase. Inflation rose by 0.8% in April vs. the expected 0.2% increase.
