U.S. consumer prices rose at the fastest clip in nearly four decades last month, underscoring the persistently elevated inflationary pressures in the recovering economy.
The Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) climbed by 6.8 percent in November compared to last year, marking the fastest annual increase since June 1982. This rate matched consensus economists’ estimates, according to Bloomberg data, but accelerated compared to the 6.2 percent year-over-year rate from the prior month.
Even excluding more volatile food and energy prices, the so-called core CPI rose by 4.9 percent over last year for the fastest increase in about three decades.
On a month-over-month basis, the CPI rose 0.8 percent in November, coming in ahead of the 0.7 percent rise anticipated. This also marked an eighteenth straight month of advances in the index. And excluding food and energy prices, the month-over-month CPI rose 0.5 percent, matching estimates and coming down by just a tick compared to October’s 0.6 percent increase.
“Inflation is outpacing increases in household income and weighing heavily on consumer confidence, which is at a decade low,” Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate, wrote in an email on Friday. “It is only a matter of time before it impacts consumer spending in a material way.”
To read the full report from Emily McCormick at Yahoo Finance, click here.