Washington [US], May 11 (ANI/Sputnik): US consumer prices rose 8.3% in the year to April, easing slightly from March while keeping inflation in the world’s largest economy not far from the four-decade highs seen in recent months, the Labor Department said Wednesday. “In April, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers rose 0.3 per cent, seasonally adjusted, and rose 8.3 per cent over the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted,” the department said, referring to its reading for the so-called CPI.
In its reading for last month, the Labor Department said the CPI rose 8.5% in the year to March, growing at its fastest pace since the 1980s. Economists had forecast an 8.1% growth for the 12 months to April, putting the reported number still above expectations as strong price pressures in the broader economy continued to make themselves felt. “We’re in the process of rolling over from extremely high year-on-year inflation but the shape of that curve is in question,” economist Adam Button said in a post on the ForexLive platform. “Will it be a swift return to 2% inflation or a long, slow process?”
The prospect of returning to 2% inflation is a key focus of the Federal Reserve, which is carrying out the sharpest US interest rate hikes in a generation to achieve that. After slashing rates to almost zero during the coronavirus breakout in March 2020, the central bank left them there unchanged for two years. The result was an explosion in price pressures as the economy rebounded by 5.7% in 2021, after a decline of 3.5% in 2020.
Since late last year, the CPI has grown month after month above economists’ expectations, with April representing its first annual decline, albeit a small one. A breakdown of the CPI showed that core prices, which strip out volatile food and energy price movements, rose more than expected, climbing 0.6% in April above forecasts for a growth of 0.4%.
It was also twice the 0.3% increase posted in March and was the biggest increase for three months, suggesting that the recent trend in inflation is hardly improving, if at all. Button, the economist on ForexLive, noted that food prices also burgeoned, overwhelming expectations. “The prices of groceries at home have risen 1.4%, 1.5% and 1.0% m/m sequentially for four months and [are] up 10.8% year-on-year,” he said. “That’s accelerating [at] the highest [pace] since November 1980.”
Also, used car prices, which he had expected to drop meaningfully after a 22.7% annual gain through March, retreated just 0.4% in April, Button said. “In May so far, we’re also seeing record US gasoline and diesel prices along with another spike in natural gas. That puts some fresh inflation into the pipeline,” he added.
Officials at the Federal Reserve are debating the viability of a 75-basis point rate hike in June, after the central bank instituted 50-bps and 25 bps increases at its May and March meetings, respectively. A 75-bps hike would represent the largest upward adjustment in rates since 1994. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has also indicated that a total of seven rate hikes — the maximum allowable under the central bank’s calendar of meetings — were on the slot for this year, with more to follow through in 2023, until a return to the annual 2% inflation rate is attained. (ANI/Sputnik)
