The Biden administration on Wednesday set a brand new record as inflation soars to 9.1 percent — the highest it’s been since 1981.
The rise has shattered the 8.8 percent Dow Jones estimate and is the largest 12-month increase in 40 years, having soared from 8.6 percent in May.
Meanwhile, core inflation rose 5.9 percent over the last 12 months, slowing its pace from May.
“Price pressures have broadened to virtually every major line item within the inflation categories,” Gargi Chaudhuri, Head of iShares Investment Strategy Americas at BlackRock, said in a research note. “Core inflation is still high, but the drastic difference between headline and core shows how much the recent move in prices has been driven by food and energy price volatility resulting from supply shortages.
The Biden administration already saw the elevated inflation numbers incoming, with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre striking an unconfident tone when she admitted that the release of the Department of Labor’s June consumer price index would be “highly elevated.”
“We expect the headline number, which includes gas and food, to be highly elevated mainly because gas prices were so elevated in June,” Jean-Pierre said during Monday’s press briefing. “Gas and food prices continue to be heavily impacted by the war in Ukraine, and there are a few important points to keep in mind when we get this backward-looking data.”
Due to soaring inflation rates and skyrocketing gas prices, Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said that Americans are suffering from financial strain.
“Paired with historic inflation and shortages for basic goods like baby formula, the rising cost of gas is the result of Joe Biden and Democrats’ anti-U.S. energy agenda,” McDaniel said. “Unfortunately, Biden only plans to make this crisis worse for families by not doing anything.”
Additionally, Democrats are also fearing that the dissatisfaction with the Biden administration’s handling of the situation could cost them their majority in Congress during the November 8 midterm elections.
A recent poll revealed that Americans are putting the blame on Biden for the country’s collapsing economy, with 64 percent of the survey’s respondents saying the president is “responsible,” while only 25 percent said otherwise.
