White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki repeatedly referred to high inflation as “Putin’s price gouging.”
The year-on-year rate of inflation in USA it shot up in March to 8.5% -six tenths above that of February-, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Tuesday.
Is about the biggest year-on-year rise since December 1981that is, for more than 40 years, and is driven above all by the rising energy, food, and housing prices.
The monthly increase in consumer prices (from February to March) was 1.2%.
The energy prices (which include gasoline, crude oil, electricity and natural gas) rose 32% in the last 12 months, pushed by the 70.1% increase in crude oil prices, while gasoline rose 48%.
As for the monthly rise, energy consumption prices rose 11% in March compared to February, according to this statistic.
The food pricesmeanwhile, rose by 8.8% in one year, especially those related to purchases in the supermarket, which increased by 10%, while those of food in restaurants increased by 6.9%.
If food and fuel prices, which are the most volatile, are excluded, core inflation was 6.5% year-on-year.
The housing pricesone of those that has the most weight in the calculation of core inflation, rose 5% in one year, and its monthly increase was 0.5%.
The Government of the United States had anticipated yesterday that the inflation data was going to be “extraordinarily high”blaming it primarily on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In a press conference, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki repeatedly referred to high inflation as “Putin’s price hike”referring to the president of Russia, Vladimir Putinand the invasion of Ukraine that his country began on February 24.
Prices, however, were already soaring in the United States before Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.