Staff Reports
The consumer price index rose a hefty 0.4 percent in March compared with the previous month. If that doesn’t make you do a double take, then hold onto your wallets, because compared with 12 months earlier, the headline index is up a whopping 3.5 percent. That’s like getting a measly 1 percent raise at your lemonade stand job, but then finding out the price of lemons spiked by 3.5 percent!
Economists had forecast a modest 0.3 percent increase in the month-to-month figure and a 3.4 percent rise over 12 months. Well, it looks like those forecasters were about as accurate as a broken compass in a hurricane. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy (you know, the stuff you need to live and get to work), also rose 0.4 percent for the month, matching the prior month and higher than the 0.3 percent expected. Compared with a year ago, core inflation is up a whopping 3.8 percent, beating expectations and matching the February figure. The only thing not rising faster than inflation is the accuracy of these predictions.
Bidenflation Reignited: Consumer Prices Rise More Than Expected For Third Straight Month https://t.co/g2ySq4QFbH via @BreitbartNews
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When the consumer price index shot up in January, many analysts said it was just a seasonal blip and that inflation would come back down. After three months of hotter-than-expected inflation, it’s pretty clear that those analysts might need to find a new Magic 8-Ball. Over the last three months, core inflation has risen at a 4.6 percent annual rate. That’s like binge-watching your favorite show, only to find out the next season won’t be released for another 30 years.
Consumer inflation peaked at a whopping 9.2 percent in June of 2022 and has only slightly backed off since then. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates like a record-breaking DJ and the Biden administration’s spending was pulled back to try and stop the bleeding from the out-of-control budget deficits. The unraveling of supply chains has helped tamp down the prices of goods, but that can only do so much when the government is spending money like it’s going out of style.
The Federal Reserve has been desperately looking for data to tell them that inflation is cooling down, aiming for a modest two percent. If only wishing made it so. The jump in inflation in February throws some serious shade on the idea that prices will start behaving themselves. This data might just make it more likely that Fed officials will hold off on cutting rates until this summer, and maybe even longer.
Before all this data came out, the market was banking on around a 60 percent chance of an interest rate cut at the Fed’s June meeting. But now, it looks like those hopes might need to be tucked back into bed for a little while longer.
Despite the end of pandemic stimulus and the Biden administration’s post-pandemic spending spree through the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act, the federal government has continued to run those pesky, whopping budget deficits. This huge spending party has likely been a major party pooper in bringing down inflation, keeping it higher than a giraffe’s eyebrows.
