Americans continue to pay record-setting prices in June as the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed in their Wednesday report that the consumer price index soared to a whopping 9.1% in June.
That number is above the Dow Jones estimate of 8.8% and sets a new 40-year high marking another straight month of the fastest rise in inflation going back to 1981.
PRICE Increase over last year:
Energy prices are up a whopping 41.6% over the last year.
Medical-care costs climbed 0.7% on the month (up 4.8% from last year) fueled by a 1.9% jump in dental care, which is the largest monthly spike ever recorded.
The higher-than-expected inflation could prompt the Federal Reserve to take an even more aggressive position raising the rates even higher than they already have, with experts saying that the threat of a recession is rising,
“U.S. inflation is above 9%, but it is the breadth of the price pressures that is really concerning for the Federal Reserve.” said James Knightley, ING’s chief international economist. “With supply conditions showing little sign of improvement the onus is the on the Fed to hit the brakes via higher rates to allow demand to better match supply conditions. The recession threat is rising.”
Americans are getting a double dose of bad news as inflation-adjusted incomes fell 1% for the month and are down 3.6% from a year ago, meaning people do not have the same purchasing power they had a year ago even though they have the same income or even a slight increase.
The White House has blamed everything from Russia to oil companies and gas stations for the spike in prices while critics point to Joe Biden’s policies as the culprit to the skyrocketing inflation that started to spike just months after Biden took office.
Many point to his ongoing war on American Energy and Open Border policies as major factors.
The administration and leading Democrats are also blaming what they call greedy corporations for using the pandemic as an excuse to raise prices. But the numbers don’t match up as post-tax corporate profits have only increased 1.3% in aggregate since the second quarter of 2021.
In a statement following the report, Biden said “tackling inflation is my top priority,” but immediately called for oil and gas companies to lower prices while calling on Congress to reduce costs for products and services.
