US Economy: Inflation Is Mostly A Food And Energy Problem – By Panos Mourdoukoutas Ph.D. (IB Times) / Dec 11 2021
Inflation is turning into a severe problem for the U.S. economy. But this problem is caused mainly by rising food and energy prices, as any consumer who buys groceries and gas would have noticed. U.S. drivers paid almost double what they paid in the spring of 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic broke.
That’s confirmed by recent inflation reports, which show a divergence between inflation for all items and “core inflation,” which excludes food and energy, including one released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers jumped 0.8% in November on top of 0.9% in October. For the last 12 months, the all items index increased 6.8%. That’s well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target and the highest inflation rate since 1982.
That’s why the situation is quite different when the Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, rose at 0.5%.
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