No Relief in Sight for Prices

No Relief in Sight for Prices

The New York Times-Business·2022-06-11 06:05

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Summer road trips are going to be expensive. Credit...An Rong Xu for The New York Times

America’s inflation is running hot

The latest Consumer Price Index showed a re-acceleration in inflation, dashing hopes that price increases were moderating. The governmentreported that consumer prices climbed by 8.6 percent in the year through May,writes The Times’s Jeanna Smialek. Fed officials are watching for signs that inflation is cooling on a monthly basis as they try to guide price increases back down to their goal, but today’s report offered more reason for worry than comfort. The headline inflation rate was the fastest since late 1981, as a broad array of products and services including rents, gas, used cars, and food became sharply more expensive.

“Inflation is clearly a major problem,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said yesterday at DealBook’s policy conference in Washington. She called the matter President Biden’s top priority, but said that household finances remained robust and that she did not expect a recession. “When you look at opinion polls, when you see what households have to say, it is amazing how pessimistic they are,” given the country has about “the strongest labor market in entire postwar period,” she said. She did not say whether relief was on the way for rising gas prices, which have hit $5 a gallon on average.

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