The U.S. inflation rate has declined slightly, but it is higher than market forecasts, suggesting a prolonged inflation.
The U.S. Department of Labor says the consumer price index jumped 8.3 percent in April from a year earlier.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said the increase slowed for the first time in eight months, down slightly from the previous month (8.5%).
However, it recorded a significant increase from the 8.1% expert forecast compiled by the WSJ and others.
Given that March’s growth was the highest since December 1981, the CPI in April is still close to its highest record in 40 years.
The increase from the previous month was also 0.3%, exceeding the market forecast (0.2%).
Excluding highly volatile energy and food, the core consumer price index rose 6.2% from the same month last year and 0.6% from the previous month, respectively.
The core CPI also showed an increase that exceeded the market forecast (6.0% year-on-year, 0.4% month-on-month).
Energy prices have declined slightly since March, the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but inflation has spread in all directions, including housing, food, and travel.
Last month, food prices rose 0.9 percent from the previous month and 9.4 percent from the same month last year, respectively, while new car purchases soared 1.1 percent from the previous month.
The cost of housing, which accounts for one-third of the total CPI, rose 0.5% for three consecutive months and rose 5.1 percent from the same month last year, the largest increase since March 1991, CNBC said.
As travel demand, which had been suppressed by the COVID-19 incident, recovered, hotel accommodation prices soared 1.7 percent and air fares soared 18.6 percent, respectively.
Energy prices fell 2.7 percent from the previous month, but they are still 30.3 percent higher than the same month last year.
Among them, gasoline prices plunged 6.1 percent in a month, but it is difficult to say that U.S. gasoline prices, which calmed down somewhat in April, have completely stabilized in that they broke their all-time high the previous day.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell hinted at the possibility of a rate hike at least two more times after taking a “big step” to raise the benchmark interest rate by 0.5 percentage points at a time, and some of the Fed’s views suggest a 0.75 percentage point increase may be considered.
