Soaring gas and food prices were the main catalysts, official data shows
© Getty Images / Joe Raedle / Staff
The US Labor Department said on Tuesday that its consumer price index soared 8.5% in March from 12 months earlier, the sharpest year-over-year increase since 1981. The surge was driven by continuing supply-chain problems, soaring demand and rising energy prices, it said.
Statistics showed that the monthly rise was 1.2%, the fastest jump since September 2005 and a sharp acceleration from February’s 0.8% increase.
US authorities are blaming the surging prices on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with President Joe Biden saying on Monday: “I am doing everything within my executive power to bring down the Putin price hike.”
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Meanwhile, Joe Manchin, the moderate Democratic senator from West Virginia, told the Financial Times that “the Federal Reserve and the administration failed to act fast enough, and today’s data is a snapshot in time of the consequences being felt across the country.” He added that it was a “disservice to the American people to act as if inflation is a new phenomenon.”
The US gasoline index skyrocketed 18.3% in March and accounted for over half of all the items’ monthly increase. Gasoline prices have been up by 48% in the past 12 months. Used car prices have also soared 35%, though they actually fell in February and March.
The food index rose 1% in March compared with February, and is up almost 9% compared with the previous 12 months. Grocery prices have jumped 10%, data shows.
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