The inflation of USA it shot up in May to its highest rate in the last 40 years, 8.6%, a new rise in consumer prices that was driven above all by the sharp increase in energy prices.
The monthly increase in consumer prices between March and April was 1%.
The data published this Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of USA It is higher than what analysts expected and ends with the truce of April, when the rate registered its first drop in seven months.
This new escalation makes the already foreseeable new rise of half a point in interest rates by the Federal Reserve (Fed), which meets next week.
The historic rise in consumer prices it is driven above all by the rise in energy prices and also, although to a lesser extent, by the rise in housing and food prices.
Energy prices (gasoline, crude oil, electricity and gas) increased by 34.6% in the last twelve months, driven by the price of crude oil, which rose by 106.7%, the largest annual increase recorded by this statistic since which began to be produced in 1935.
Compared to the month of April, energy prices increased by 3.9%, in contrast to the drop of 2.7% that was registered then compared to the month of March.
Food prices, for their part, rose by 10.1% in one year, especially those related to purchases in the supermarket, which increased by 11.9%, while those of food in restaurants increased by 7 ,4 %.
America’s headache
Both figures are slightly higher than the increase registered last month, which contributes to inflation growing in May at the fastest pace that has been registered in the country in the last 40 years.
If food and fuel prices, which are the most volatile, are excluded, core inflation was 6% year-on-year.
The price of housing, one of those that has the most weight in the calculation of underlying inflation, rose by 5.5% in one year, and its monthly increase was 0.6%.
The rise in prices has become the main headache for the US president, Joe Biden, who has been repeating since last month that controlling the rise in prices is his “main economic priority”.
The president repeated that idea last Friday in a speech at the port of Los Angeles, in which he once once more blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin and his decision to invade Ukrainefrom the elevated inflation in the United Stateseven though the index was already on an upward trajectory before the war.
“I understand that Americans feel anxious. I myself grew up in a house where the price of gasoline had gone up and that was what we talked regarding at the table. And that made a difference in the prices of food that went up,” said the president, remembering his humble origins in Scranton (Pennsylvania).
The increase in prices is partly a consequence of the robustness of the US labor market, as companies are forced to raise wages to attract workers, thus increasing the purchasing power of consumers and this allows prices of goods to rise as well. food, energy and rents, among others.
The unemployment rate was 3.6% in May, practically full employment levels.
Still, there are signs that the US labor market is moderating, with data for May and April showing less pronounced growth than in previous months.
All this in the midst of fears that the US economy will enter a recession due to interest rate hikes that the Fed has approved to try to curb inflation.
The Federal Reserve is expected to continue raising interest rates, which are currently in a range of 0.75% and 1%, at least as long as job creation remains strong.
According to the minutes of the last meeting, the Fed intends to approve two half-point increases at its next two meetings.
(EFE)