U.S. inflation rose to the highest level in nearly forty years in December, underscoring the high and rising inflation that has been the hallmark of the first year of Joe Biden’s presidency.
The Labor Department said the Consumer Price Index—which tracks what consumers pay for goods and services—rose by seven percent from a year ago. That was the fastest 12-month pace since 1982 and the seventh straight month of inflation above 5 percent. In November, CPI was up 6.9 percent.
What’s known as core CPI–which excludes the often-volatile categories of food and energy–increased 5.5 percent in December from a year earlier, a faster pace of price hikes than November’s 4.9 percent.
Compared with a month earlier, prices rose 0.5 percent. Core prices were up 0.6 percent.
Analysts had forecast year-over-year inflation at 7.1 percent, with core inflation at 5.4 percent. On a monthly basis, analysts were expecting prices to move up 0.4 percent and core prices to rise 0.5 percent.
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