The October Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures the cost of goods to Americans, showed that, unsurprisingly, inflation continues to rise as Americans struggle to make ends meet. The October reading showed that inflation rose 0.4% from the previous month and increased 7.7% over the past 12 months.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the October inflation reading showed that “the housing index contributed more than half to the monthly increase for all items, and the gasoline and food indexes also rose.” More specifically, the BLS reported that “the energy index rose 1.8% over the month as the gasoline and electricity index rose, but the natural gas index declined,” while “the fuel index rose 0.6% in the month with food at the domestic index up 0.4%.”
Overall, the 12-month cost increases for each item specified in the CPI report increased. Food costs 10.9% more than a year ago. Energy costs increased by 17.6%, fuel oil increased by 68.5%, and electricity increased by 14.1%.
As Dagen McDowell noted, October’s inflation reading shows a slight cooling from searing increases in prices that have hovered and hovered around 40-year highs under President Biden’s “build back better” policies. But any slowdown in inflation is due solely to interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, even as Biden has continued with his fiscal and spending agenda.
The Fed has imposed repeated 75 basis point hikes to its target rate, bringing it to a level not seen since early 2008 in an attempt to strangle the economy and drive prices down.
With what may be a hopeful sign that the Fed’s actions are finally squeezing the life out of the economy in a way that has slowed spending by making borrowing too expensive, there is still a long way to go and a journey ahead that the Fed Chairman Jerome Powell warned. It would be one of the most “pains” for American families.
🚨CONSUMER PRICES COOLING IN OCTOBER, UP +0.4% from Sept. and +7.7% from a year ago. Only the Federal Reserve should take credit or get credit. 🚨
— Dagen McDowell (@dagenmcdowell) November 10, 2022
As of now, the October CPI report shows some relaxation, but not significantly, that Americans will still feel in their wallets when they go to the supermarket or fill up on cars.
Also, as our friend Ed Morrissey pointed out this morning on HotAir, “Based on the logic of this report, the slight respite it shows may not last long.”
What President Biden, Democrats in Congress, and the mainstream media are likely to omit from their comments on the latest inflation issue is that “monthly inflation increased 0.4% for the second consecutive month” in October, as Morrissey noted, while “housing costs grew twice as fast, the highest level in several months.”
So no, Thursday’s inflation report isn’t good news yet. But that won’t stop Biden from repeating his dubious claim that he is leading the US through a booming economic recovery and that any financial woes are the fault of Putin or the greedy oil companies. The data doesn’t support Biden’s boast, but he doesn’t seem to care that Americans are suffering as a result.
