Inflation in the United States soared to a new four-decade high in May, defying expectations that price pressures had peaked and added to President Joe Biden’s electoral woes as Americans fight to keep up with the rising cost of basic necessities like food and gas.
Gas prices have touched daily records, pushed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and supply chain issues due to the epidemic, according to government statistics released Friday, extending gains not seen in a generation.
Biden, whose popularity has suffered as prices have risen just months before the midterm elections in November, has made battling inflation his top domestic priority, but he is discovering he has little means to directly influence pricing.
“I’m doing everything I can to Mitigate Putin’s price spike and lower petrol and food prices,” he declared Friday at the Port of Los Angeles.
“We’re in a better position than almost any other country in the world to overcome the worldwide inflation we’re witnessing and to take the next step toward establishing a historic recovery,” he says.
The president has attempted to hammer home his upbeat message about economic gains in the aftermath of the pandemic, citing strong GDP growth and record job creation, while also asking Congress to take action to reduce pricing on certain products.
Biden referenced the release of 30 million barrels of reserve oil as an example, and he reiterated his support for legislation to target industries like shipping companies who take advantage of low competition to impose steep price hikes.
In an earlier remark, he admitted that growing inflation was a serious problem, stating that the US “must do more — and fast — to bring prices down.”
The consumer price index (CPI) increased by 8.6% from May 2021 to May 2021, up from 8.3% in the previous 12 months and above what most experts thought was the peak of 8.5 per cent in March.
According to the Labor Department data, prices for products such as housing, groceries, airline tickets, and used and new vehicles continued to rise last month, reaching new records in many categories.
“The headline inflation figures are horrifying. They’re only awful if you exclude some particular criteria “On Twitter, Jason Furman, a Harvard economist and former White House adviser, stated.
Some economists predicted that the lifting of pandemic restrictions would lead to a shift in US consumer demand toward services rather than goods, reducing inflationary pressures. However, service prices rose as well.
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The Labor Department stated that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) climbed 1% in May compared to April, significantly higher than economists’ expectations.
Energy prices have risen 34.6 per cent in the last year, the highest since September 2005, while food prices have risen 10.1 per cent, the highest since March 1981.
