U.S. inflation soared 7.9% in past year, a record 40-year high.
QUICK FACTS:
- Consumer inflation jumped 7.9% over the past year, the sharpest spike since 1982 and likely only a harbinger of even higher prices to come, The Associated Press (AP) reports.
- The increase reported Thursday by the Labor Department reflected the 12 months ending in February and didn’t include the oil and gas price surges that followed Russia’s military operation in Ukraine that commenced on Feb 24 and subsequent sanctions placed on Russia.
- Since then, average gas prices nationally have jumped about 62 cents a gallon to $4.32, according to AAA.
- Housing costs, which make up about a third of the government’s consumer price index, have risen sharply, a trend that’s unlikely to reverse anytime soon, AP notes.
WHAT ECONOMISTS ARE SAYING:
“The numbers are eye-watering, and there is more to come,” said Eric Winograd, senior economist at asset management firm Alliance Bernstein. “The peak in inflation will be much higher than previously thought and will arrive later than previously expected.”
BACKGROUND:
- The government’s report Thursday showed that from January to February, inflation rose 0.8%, up from a 0.6% increase from December to January, AP reports.
- Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, so-called core prices rose a sharp 0.5% month to month and 6.4% from a year earlier.
- Joe Biden on Tuesday said that he “can’t do much” about gas prices that are surging past all-time highs after he signed an executive order to ban Russian oil imports.
