Overall prices rose 0.3% from March.
QUICK FACTS:
- U.S. consumer price growth remained at a four-decade high in April, the consumer price index (CPI) rising at an annual pace of 8.3% last month, according to Labor Department data released on Wednesday.
- Economists expected an increase of 8.1%.
- The overall increase influenced the cost of shelter, food, airline fares, and new car prices.
- U.S. gas prices hit an all-time record Tuesday, the average price for regular gas reaching $4.37 per gallon, according to AAA. Diesel prices also hit a record $5.55 per gallon. Experts don’t expect prices at the gas pump to ease any time soon.
- Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.6% in April after a 0.3% uptick in March—a “seriously disappointing” jump given expectations for a 0.4% increase, Pantheon Macroeconomics chief economist Ian Shepherdson said in an email Wednesday, pointing out a 1.1% increase in new vehicle prices was “significantly bigger” than in recent months, Forbes reports.
FINANCIAL TIMES PREDICTS MORE INFLATION:
- FT noted that “evidence that price pressures are no longer a phenomenon exclusive to sectors most affected by pandemic-related disruptions — but rather a broad-based trend affecting all sectors — has stoked concerns that inflation is becoming a persistent problem.”
BACKGROUND:
- Inflation rose 1.2% from February to March.
- Joe Biden on Tuesday emphasized how fighting inflation was his administration’s “top economic challenge” and supported the Federal Reserve’s attempts to control inflation.
