Full coverage of the markets and U.S. consumer-price index for May.
Prices for used cars and trucks rose 1.8% in May from April, reversing three months of declines. May’s increase was driven by sharp rises in the prices for energy, which rose 34.6% from a year earlier, and groceries, which jumped 11.9% on the year. The Labor Department on Friday said that the consumer-price index increased 8.6% in May from the same month a year ago, marking its fastest pace since December 1981.
Surging food, gas and energy prices all contributed to the gain, with fuel oil up 106.7% over the past year. Shelter costs, which comprise about one-third of ...
The paper asserts that the current inflation predicament is closer to the 1980s situation than it appears because of differences in the ways that CPI is computed then and now. With 75 basis points of interest rate rises already under its belt, markets widely expect the Fed to continue tightening policy through the year and possibly into 2023. ... I struggle to see how the Fed can back off." May's report likely solidifies the likelihood of multiple 50 basis point interest rate increases ahead. Real wages when accounting for inflation fell 0.6% in April, even though average hourly earnings rose 0.3%, according to a separate BLS release. The 5.5% 12-month gain is the most since February 1991. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core CPI was up 6%, slightly higher than the 5.9% estimate. New vehicle prices rose 1% in May. On a 12-month basis, real average hourly earnings were down 3%. Core inflation excluding food and energy rose 6%. Both were higher than expected. "Obviously, nothing is good in this report," said Julian Brigden, president of MI2 Partners, a global macroeconomic research firm. Friday's numbers dented hopes that inflation may have peaked and adds to fears that the U.S. economy is nearing a recession.
U.S. consumer prices accelerated in May to the highest since 1981, as Americans grapple with a surge in the cost of gas, food, and shelter, data showed ...
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The increase in the consumer price index in May was more than triple the gain in the prior month. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a ...
“U.S. inflation sped up in May, with nearly every item zooming higher, and another big core jump suggests the peak might be some ways off. The big worry on Wall Street is that inflation is shifting to services from goods. More bad news: Gas prices rose again in June and hit a record high. Either approach would be bad for the economy. The longer that goes on the more strain it will place on American households and hurt the economy. The central bank also risks inducing a recession in its effort to quell inflation. Speculation about a rate-hike “pause” in the fall looks farfetched. The last time inflation rose as rapidly was in 1981. Shelter costs account for a third or more of a typical household budget. Prices are likely to show another big increase in June. Gas prices have jumped again to record highs. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 0.7% advance.
The latest Consumer Price Index showed a re-acceleration in inflation, dashing hopes that price increases had peaked.
The World Bank expects the rate of global consumer price inflation to drop below 3 percent next year. By contrast, the organization partly blamed inflation in the United States on “ over-buoyant demand,” which is more responsive to tighter monetary policy. The question — and big uncertainty — is how much Fed action will be needed to bring inflation under control. Data from the index is also used to come up with the P.C.E. figures. Rents are climbing swiftly as Americans compete for a limited supply of apartments, restaurant bills are heading higher as food and labor costs rise, and airline tickets and hotel rooms cost more because people are eager to travel and because inputs like fuel and labor are more expensive. At the same time, the war in Ukraine is cutting into the world’s supply of food and fuel, pushing overall inflation higher and feeding into the cost of other products and services. Travelers can save more than $100 each on the cost of a domestic flight and hotel stay if they plan trips in late August rather than in June or July. The price of gasoline rose 4.1 percent in May over the previous month, bringing the increase from a year ago to 48.7 percent. The central bank is expected to raise its benchmark rate by half a percentage point next week, and then again in July. Polls consistently show voters rate inflation as the country’s top economic problem and expect it to worsen. Friday’s release of Consumer Price Index data from the Labor Department contradicted, at least for a month, some of the administration’s more optimistic predictions. 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 Friday’s report offered more reason for worry than comfort.
The cost of gas, food and other necessities jumped in May, raising U.S. inflation to a new four-decade high and giving American households no respite from ...
Goods prices are expected to fall in the coming months. That's up from about 7.5 per cent in February, a steep increase in such a short period. Now, as Americans resume spending on services, including travel, entertainment and dining out, the costs of airline tickets, hotel rooms and restaurant meals have soared. Inflation has remained high even as the sources of rising prices have shifted. Congressional Republicans are hammering Democrats on the issue in the run-up to midterm elections this fall. Lower-income and Black and Hispanic Americans, in particular, are struggling because, on average, a larger proportion of their income is consumed by necessities.
Consumer prices rose 1% during month and 8.6% from a year ago, adding more pressure on Fed to cool the economy.
Just after the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its May Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, Brookings convened an expert panel of economists to discuss ...
“One of the places where there’s a little bit of good news here is that one sector where monetary policy is particularly effective is in the housing sector,” said Edelberg. “Think about the channel of, you know, you raise mortgage rates and that’s going to slow demand for people purchasing homes. That’s not to say, ‘Hey, don’t worry about it,’ it’s actually a reason to worry even more because that can cause inflation expectations to rise and cause the next round of inflation. “So the pain is real, but it’s short run.” Because that’s one of the significant places where we’re seeing inflationary pressure, we can expect, it’s not going to happen instantaneously, but we can expect that monetary policy is going to help bring down shelter inflation. Wolfers added that high food prices are similarly salient, and the importance of these goods to households will yield additional political and economic consequences. Furman agreed that the government is on the right track. Agreeing with Furman’s 4 percent estimate of underlying inflation, Wolfer’s noted that, “I agree that that’s worrying, but it’s dramatically different than the headlines you’re going to read tomorrow. “The wage numbers, which, really we do think of as the important medium-run driver of inflation, aren’t that threatening, but the price numbers really are kind of miserable. I think that data, taken as a totality, says the underlying inflation rate may be around 4 percent, rather than the 8 percent headline CPI we’ve had over the last year.” But the pivot itself I think is good news if it means we’re starting to normalize.” I look at the monthly numbers, and in particular the monthly core number was an 8 percent annual rate if inflation went at this pace. In addition to the headline numbers, he continued on to say that the monthly numbers were also cause for concern.
A new report from the Department of Labor found that the rate of inflation has reached 8.6%, with motor fuel and food experiencing the fastest increases.
California, for example, has one of the highest rates of fuel tax in the US so residents have to pay a bit more for gasoline. For weeks experts have been warning of $5 per gallon gasoline prices becoming the norm, but in some parts of the US the price has risen way above that level. These increases have been fuelled in large part by the invasion of Ukraine, which has disrupted one of the most fertile areas of agricultural land in the world and a key contributor to satisfy the global food demand. The price of gasoline is up by 48.7% on average, while fuel oil has experienced a 106.7% increase in the past 12 months. Food is one of those essential purchases that consumers just can’t do without, so the 11.9% increase in the price of grocery store food will hit households hard across the country. The core CPI, which excludes volatile factors like food and energy, was also a very high 6%.