Fuel prices 18.3 percent higher
US inflation climbs to 8.5 percent
April 12, 2022, 6:15 p.m
Inflation has been rising in the US since last year. The corona pandemic is causing prices to skyrocket. Inflation is now climbing to a 40-year high because of the Ukraine war – and is putting US President Joe Biden under a lot of pressure.
In the US, inflation in the midst of the Ukraine war has risen to 8.5 percent, the highest level in more than 40 years. The rise in consumer prices accelerated further in March, according to the US Department of Labor. Compared to the previous month, consumer prices increased by 1.2 percent. Inflation was driven by rising prices for gas, rent and groceries.
Fuel prices alone increased by 18.3 percent within a month, according to the labor market statistics agency based at the Ministry of Labour. They were thus responsible for more than half of the inflation rate. Compared to March 2021, gasoline prices were 48 percent higher.
In February, consumer prices increased by 7.9 percent compared to the same month last year and by 0.8 percent compared to the previous month. The now published inflation rate of 8.5 percent year-on-year is the highest since December 1981, when inflation was 8.9 percent.
In the USA, inflation had already risen sharply last year as part of the recovery from the economic effects of the corona pandemic. The reason for this was, among other things, an increased demand for goods with simultaneous bottlenecks in the international supply chains and a shortage of workers.
Oil and gasoline prices are rising
In the past few months, the Ukraine crisis and finally the Russian war of aggression against the neighboring country, which started on February 24, led to a sharp increase in the price of oil and thus also of petrol. The US Federal Reserve has already started to take countermeasures. In mid-March, it raised key interest rates again for the first time since the beginning of the corona pandemic.
High inflation is a huge political problem for President Joe Biden, whose Democrats face a bitter defeat in November’s midterm elections. The significant price increase has made a decisive contribution to the poor poll numbers of the President. On the other hand, the fact that the labor market has been developing positively for months has received much less public attention.
High inflation is currently affecting many countries around the world. In Germany, inflation reached 7.3 percent in March, the highest level since reunification, the Federal Statistical Office announced on Tuesday.