Consumer prices continue to climb at their fastest annual rate since 2008 as inflation skyrockets under President Joe Biden and his Democrat administration. Inflation is now higher than it’s been in over a decade.
In the latest May 2021 Consumer Price Index data, the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates there was a 5 percent year-over-year rise in prices across the board, outpacing economists’ expectations of a 4.7 percent increase.
“Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 5.0 percent before seasonal adjustment; this was the largest 12-month increase since a 5.4-percent increase for the period ending August 2008,” the report states.
As noted in the report, the last time the United States experienced such a rapid rise in the consumer price index was in 2008, shortly before a massive market crash that was exacerbated by federal money.
Following months of government-mandated lockdowns, consumers and companies in the U.S. are still seeking to fully make an economic recovery. Under the new administration, however, more businesses are struggling to keep workers, who are regularly receiving disincentivizing unemployment money, forcing businesses to raise wages and impose costs on buyers. Businesses are also burdening consumers with costs associated with the escalation in raw material prices.
While the index numbers for food and energy have steadily climbed over the last year, the index for other goods and services such as “food, clothing, shelter, fuels, transportation, doctors’ and dentists’ services, drugs” and other day-to-day living items also “rose 3.8 percent over the last 12-months, the largest 12-month increase since the period ending June 1992.”
This drastic trend of rising prices signals a rapid approach to what could be the worst inflation of this century. It also raises questions about how the Biden administration will handle the price surge, which is expected to extend itself through the summer.
