Jimu news reporter Li Lili
During this time, millions of Americans refuel at gas stations, queue up at grocery store cashiers, and go grocery shopping to the supermarket, all of which will feel the continuous price increase. According to the Associated Press on February 10, this is the continued financial pressure brought about by inflation.
On Thursday, local time, the US Department of Labor released that as of January 2022, the US consumer price index (CPI) was 7.5%, the fastest year-on-year growth rate in 40 years.
Even excluding volatile food and energy prices, core inflation rose 6 percent over the past year, the biggest gain in four years.
Image source: Associated Press
Prices are rising, and some residents can't afford chicken
This rise is becoming more and more evident in the daily lives of consumers.
New York Manhattan has always been known for high prices, and Miss Lu, who lives here, said that prices here are actually rising every year, and most of the current prices of vegetables and daily necessities are 10% more expensive than before.
Liang Liang, a Hubei girl who lives in Flushing, New York, said that the price increase was most obvious after the outbreak of the epidemic in the United States. Flushing is the largest Chinese congregation in New York, with about 70,000 Ethnic Chinese.
Daniel Ashley, a paralegal in Keysco Hill, New York, said his weekly daily purchase costs had risen by about 20 percent over the past few months, and he bought the same products, according to the New York Times. He said almost everything in the store seemed to be more expensive.
"The big box of cereal was $5 six months ago, and now it's going to cost $6."
Ashley also found that gas and electricity bills are rising, and "everything is getting more expensive." ”
Tenesia Moore is an 8th grade teacher who lives in Michigan. She felt that chicken was too expensive now and she was no longer going to buy chicken.
Fortunately, she had stored a lot of food in the refrigerator and storage room, but she was worried that after eating these stored grains, the price would still be so high.
Over the past year, prices for used cars and trucks in the U.S. have risen 41 percent, gasoline by 40 percent, bacon by 18 percent, bedroom furniture by 14 percent, and women's clothing by 11 percent, according to The Associated Press.
Image source: The Guardian
In one year, the CPI rose from 1.7% to 7.5%
Back in December 2020, the Fed had forecast that the CPI would remain under the 2% target and would remain around 1.8% by the end of 2021. But the Fed did not expect inflation to last so long and so severely.
In February 2021, the U.S. CPI was just 1.7 percent higher than it was a year ago. But since then, the growth rate has become more and more "cruel". 2.7% in March, 4.2% in April, 4.9% in May and 5.3% in June.
By October, the figure was 6.2 percent, 6.8 percent in November and up 7.1 percent year-on-year in December. As of January this year, the CPI has risen by 7.5%.
The CPI rose from 1.7% to 7.5% in just one year.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell called it a "temporary" issue. He believes that this is mainly due to the speed at which the U.S. economy recovered from the epidemic faster than everyone expected, resulting in transportation delays and various shortages of goods and labor.
After the outbreak in the United States in the spring of 2020, companies had to close or shorten their working hours, employers cut 22 million jobs, a large number of people lost their jobs, and the economy was paralyzed.
Just when everyone was ready for a recession, the U.S. government poured a lot of money, the Federal Reserve implemented emergency interventions including interest rate cuts, and the economy began to recover again. In the spring of 2021, with the introduction of vaccines and mandatory injections, residents began to return to restaurants, bars, shops and airports to start a normal life.
At this time, companies find themselves facing a shortage of labor, global supply chain disruptions and other dilemmas.
The consequence of rising consumer demand and falling supply is that costs rise with it. Businesses can only pass it on to consumers at a higher price.
At this time, in January this year, the US central bank hinted that it would start a series of interest rate hikes in March. In this way, the Fed wants to get rid of ultra-low interest rates and help the economy recover from the devastating recession of 2020, but it also further fuels the spike in consumer prices...
The CPI remained high, and Americans were unhappy with Biden
Economists predict that the CPI will remain high this year as demand has outstripped supply in many sectors of the economy.
Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors, said: "Inflation remains the biggest challenge facing the economy. While price pressures are expected to ease somewhat over time, the CPI will remain above the Fed's projected 2% target. ”
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers hit the nail on the head that part of the inflation was blamed on Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief program. The government issued $1,400 checks to some families, overheating the already hot economy.
According to a Poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, only 37 percent of Americans favor biden's approach to the economy as gasoline prices, food and housing prices soar.
Biden said: "I know food prices are going up. I will work like the devil to lower the price of gasoline. ”
White House press secretary Jane Psaki tried to round the scoring for Biden: "More than 7% is not surprising, we should pay attention to the recent good trend, inflation is falling month by month." ”
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