President Joe Biden on Tuesday said the most recent Consumer Price Index report indicates that the US is “making progress” in slowing the rate at which prices for essential goods have been rising in recent months, calling inflation a “global challenge” brought about by a post-pandemic economic resurgence.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ CPI report found that prices for “urban consumers” jumped by half-a-percentage point over the last month of 2021, three-tenths of a point less than they’d risen the previous month.
Mr Biden’s first year in office saw the largest CPI increase in decades, with prices rising a full seven per cent over the 12 months ending in December. According to BLS records, last year’s 12-month increase in inflation was the largest such jump since 1982.
In a statement, Mr Biden said the “meaningful reduction in headline inflation” and reductions in both food and gasoline prices “demonstrates that we are making progress in slowing the rate of price increases” but acknowledged that his administration has “more work to do” because even the reduced rate at which prices rose last month is “squeezing family budgets”.
While many of his Republican critics have placed sole blame for the rise in prices on him and his administration’s economic policies, Mr Biden called inflation “a global challenge” that is “appearing in virtually every developed nation as it emerges from the pandemic economic slump”.
He further noted that the US is “fortunate” to have one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, which he credited to the American Rescue Plan relief package which he signed into law last spring.
Mr Biden said the relief package had enabled his administration to “address price increases and maintain strong, sustainable economic growth”.
“That is my goal and I am focused on reaching it every day,” he added.
