The Indiana Farm Bureau is out with its annual Thanksgiving market basket survey and it shows Hoosier shoppers can expect to spend about 12% more at the grocery store this year than in 2020 for the family feast.
Inflation is eating into recent wage increases, and the timing couldn’t be worse after federal pandemic relief expired for about 7.5 million people.
Solid hiring, strong pay raises, and healthy savings for many households are underpinning robust spending. But much of the sales increase reflected higher prices.
As any American who has bought a carton of milk, a gallon of gas or a used car could tell you, inflation has settled in. And economists are now voicing a more discouraging message.
Inflation is eroding the strong gains in wages and salaries that have flowed to America’s workers in recent months, creating political headaches for the Biden administration and congressional Democrats and intensifying pressure on the Federal Reserve.
The Labor Department reported Tuesday that its producer price index—which measures inflation before it hits consumers—rose 0.6% last month from September, pushed higher by surging gasoline prices.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed was sticking by its bedrock economic forecast. Yet, the nation’s leading economic figure acknowledged that it isn’t at all clear when or even whether things will play out the way he and other Fed officials hope.
The Fed’s likely decision this week to taper its bond purchases comes as high inflation is bedeviling the U.S. economy for much longer than Federal Reserve Chair Powell and many other officials initially expected.
Procter & Gamble, the maker of Pampers diapers, Tide detergent and Crest toothpaste, said it’s raising prices on a range of goods as higher commodity and freight costs are set to take a bite out of its profits.
Americans continued to spend at a solid clip in September even while facing sticker shock in grocery aisles, car lots and restaurants as snarled global supply chains slow the flow of goods.
The unexpected burst of inflation this year reflects sharply higher prices for food and energy, but also for furniture, cars, televisions, and other largely imported goods.
The biggest cost-of-living adjustment in 39 years follows a burst in inflation as the economy struggles to shake off the drag of the coronavirus pandemic.
Americans bought more furniture, clothes, and groceries during the month, while the delta variant caused them to pull back on traveling and eating out.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday stood behind the ultra-low interest rate policies he has pursued since the pandemic decimated the economy more than 18 months ago. But he acknowledged inflation has stayed higher for longer than he expected.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that the unprecedented process of reopening the economy after the COVID shutdowns has resulted in a number of problems that could continue in coming months.
While the upward march of prices appears to have eased last month, economists caution that the same underlying causes remain. Supply chains are still snarled, especially for critical components like computer chips, and consumer demand is easily outpacing supply.
Inflation at the wholesale level saw its biggest annual gain since the Labor Department started calculating the 12-month number in 2010.
An Indianapolis City-County Council committee on Tuesday unanimously voted to advance a plan allowing public employees’ wages to rise with inflation, as work continues on the city’s first public pay scale change in more than a decade.
Senior administration officials have been worried about polling showing that voters—including many Democrats—blame President Biden’s economic policies for high inflation.
Consumer prices over the past 12 months have risen 4.2%, the biggest 12-month gain since a 4.5% increase for the 12 months ending in January 1991.
