(Washington) Inflation probably continued to accelerate in January, the White House warned on Wednesday, preparing people for the bad figures that will be officially released Thursday morning.
Posted at 4:47 p.m.
Consumer prices rose 7% in 2021, their fastest pace in nearly four decades.
“We expect high year-on-year inflation in tomorrow’s data,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Wednesday.
Inflation “above 7%, as some (economists) predict, would not be a surprise,” she added.
Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for the past month will be released at 1:30 p.m. GMT by the Labor Department.
For months, President Joe Biden has been promising to invert the price curve. The increase concerns all sectors of the economy and particularly affects low-income households.
Although the economic recovery continues with sustained growth higher than that of other advanced countries recorded in 2021, inflation is a dark shadow on the economic picture.
The Republican opposition as well as economists believe that this is the direct consequence of the economic policy of Joe Biden who had voted last year in Congress a gigantic emergency plan of 1900 billion dollars.
The price spike is also the result of a combination of pandemic-related factors including supply chain issues, component shortages and labor shortages.
Many economists expect the price spike to continue into the very start of the year before moderating later in the year as shortages dissipate and the U.S. Central Bank raises interest rates. interest.
In December, prices had indeed increased more slowly than in November, at 0.5% against 0.8%, in particular because the rise in energy prices had slowed for the first time in months.
“Major forecasters continue to project that inflation should decline and moderate over the course of this year,” added Joe Biden’s spokeswoman.
A consensus of economists, however, expects inflation to have remained stable in January compared to December.
Excluding the volatile prices of the food and energy sectors, they anticipate monthly growth of 0.5%, barely less than the 0.6% recorded in December.