Farmers and agricultural experts say the continued effects of the pandemic, government policy decisions and far-reaching impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are also contributing factors.
Nine of the 13 retail categories showed increases last month, according to the report, including furniture stores, e-commerce and sporting-goods stores.
Such an increase would mark a further ramping up of the Fed’s rate hikes as it intensifies its fight against accelerating inflation. The Fed hasn’t raised its rate by 1 percentage point in several decades.
Last month’s jump in wholesale inflation was led by energy prices, which soared 54% from a year earlier.
The latest inflation reading was supposed to offer hope that the U.S. economy had weathered the worst of the storm. But there was nothing reassuring in Wednesday’s report.
Investors upped bets the central bank could make a one percentage-point rate hike at its July 26-27 meeting—which would be the largest increase of the modern Federal Reserve era.
Rising costs have seeped into nearly every corner of the economy, with grocery prices jumping 12.2% compared with a year ago. Rents have risen 5.8% and new car prices have increased 11.4%.
The consumer price index probably increased 8.8% in June from a year earlier, marking the largest jump since 1981, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey.
St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said he currently supports a 0.75 percentage point increase in the Fed’s benchmark short-term interest rate at its next meeting later this month.
A recent report from the Associated General Contractors of America states that, from April 2021 through the first quarter of 2022, the price of nonresidential construction components, or inputs, has risen 21%. Among those inputs, diesel fuel has jumped 86%; plastics, 30%; and insulation products, 19.6%.
The surprisingly strong gain will likely spur the Federal Reserve to keep raising interest rates to cool the economy and slow price increases.
Inflation tightened its grip on businesses and consumers during the second quarter and investors expect to see a dent in the latest round of corporate earnings.
Federal Reserve officials are concerned that Americans are starting to expect high inflation to last longer than they had before—a sentiment that could embed an inflationary psychology and make it harder to slow price increases.
Facing steep increases in food production costs, Indiana farmers warn that consumers are likely to see continued price jumps at stores later this year.
As of June 22, Indiana had issued about $245.6 million in refunds, according to the Department of Revenue. That’s about 45% of the $545 million Gov. Eric Holcomb promised to return when he announced the move in December 2021.
The S&P 500, Wall Street’s broad benchmark for many stock funds, closed the first half of 2022 with a loss of more than 20% after starting the year at an all-time high. It’s the worst start to a year since 1970, when Apple and Microsoft had yet to be founded.
Thursday’s report from the Commerce Department provided the latest evidence that painfully high inflation is pressuring American households and inflicting particular harm on low-income families and people of color.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell repeated his hope that the Fed can achieve a so-called soft landing, but said the job had become more difficult.
Ever-increasing prices at the pump and grocery store checkout line aren’t the only places where Hoosiers can see the impact of inflation—state building projects are also feeling the budgetary strain.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday underscored the Fed’s determination to raise interest rates high enough to slow inflation, a commitment that has fanned concerns that the central bank’s fight against surging prices could tip the economy into recession.
