As inflation continues to soar in the United States, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported Thursday that the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index increased to the highest level in almost 42 years while consumer spending cools.
The PCE is one of the Federal Reserves’ key inflation indicators when it targets 2% annual inflation rate, surged 5.7% in November on a year-over-year basis. This was also a 0.6% increase over October, the BEA reported. November’s figure is the highest since 1982.
The core PCE index, which strips out food and gas prices, surged 4.7% on a year-over-year basis, the largest jump since 1983. Energy prices surged 34% from one year ago, and food costs jumped 5.6%.
According to CNN Business Mike Englund, chief economist at Action Economics said “We suspect that the November and December headline figures will mark the top given a modest energy price pull-back into the turn of the year.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. consumer spending rose 0.6% last month after surging 1.4% in October, according to the BEA. Shoppers purchased holiday gifts earlier than in previous years as they expected inventory shortages, which contributed to the high figure in October.
Aneta Markowska, chief economist at Jefferies LLC told the Wall Street Journal, “We are still on track for very strong fourth-quarter consumption, but I am now seeing that momentum continue to fade.”
Markowska and other economic experts see the Omicron coronavirus variant slowing economic recovery with some economist lowering growth targets for early 2022. Omicron is also keeping worker at home, which could further limit companies’ capacity to produce goods and supply stores with inventory, according to the WSJ.
“it’s not that there’s a lack of demand for goods, as that has been one of the biggest surprises of 2021. It goes back to the supply chain. You just cannot source these goods,” Andrew Hollenhorst, chief U.S. economist at Citigroup Inc., told the WSJ.
All in all, this is very bad news for the Biden Administration, as his approval ratings continue their downward trend, and not good news at all for Americans.
