Aljazeera :
The costs of gas, food and other necessities jumped in May, raising inflation in the United States to a new four-decade high and giving American households no respite from rising costs.
Consumer prices surged 8.6 percent last month from 12 months earlier, faster than April’s year-over-year surge of 8.3 percent, the US Labor Department said Friday.
On a month-to-month basis, prices jumped 1 percent from April to May, a steep rise from the 0.3 percent increase from March to April. Much higher gas prices were to blame for most of that increase.
America’s rampant inflation is imposing severe pressures on families, forcing them to pay much more for food, gas and rent and reducing their ability to afford discretionary items, from haircuts to electronics. Lower-income and Black and Hispanic Americans, in particular, are struggling because, on average, a larger proportion of their income is consumed by necessities.
US President Joe Biden was scheduled to address price hikes Friday while speaking at the Port of Los Angeles, the busiest in the US. For more than a year scores of ships have lined up outside, as COVID limited capacity to unload ships, disrupting supply chains.
Economists do expect inflation to ease this year, though not by very much. Some analysts have forecast that the inflation gauge the government reported Friday – the consumer price index – may drop below 7 percent by year’s end. In March, the year-over-year CPI reached 8.5 percent, the highest such rate since 1982.
High inflation has also forced the Federal Reserve into what will likely be the fastest series of interest rate hikes in three decades. By raising borrowing costs aggressively, the Fed hopes to cool spending and growth enough to curb inflation without tipping the economy into a recession. For the central bank, it will be a difficult balancing act.
Surveys show that Americans see high inflation as the nation’s top problem, and most disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy. Congressional Republicans are hammering Democrats on the issue in the run-up to midterm elections this fall.
