US consumer price growth reaches 40-year high in Feb

Washington: The Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing a continued acceleration in the annual rate of US consumer price growth in February.

The report showed the annual rate of consumer price growth accelerated to 7.9 per cent in February, from 7.5 per cent in January, reaching the highest rate since January 1982.

“The Russia-Ukraine war adds further fuel to the blazing rate of inflation via higher energy, food, and core commodity prices that are turbo charged by a worsening in supply chain problems,” said Kathy Bostjancic, chief US financial economist at Oxford Economics.

“This will lead to a higher near-term peak in inflation and a slower descent through 2022 than previously envisaged,” she added. “Our modeling work suggests consumer prices rise closer to 6.5 per cent on average in 2022 after a 4.7 per cent rise in 2021.”

The faster year-over-year price growth came as consumer prices climbed by 0.8 per cent in February after rising by 0.6 per cent in January. The increase in prices matched economist estimates.

The monthly advance in consumer prices was led by a spike in energy prices, which shot up by 3.5 per cent in February after climbing by 0.9 per cent in January.

Food prices also showed a notable increase, jumping by 1.0 per cent in February following a 0.8 per cent advance in the previous month.

Excluding food and energy prices, core consumer prices rose by 0.5 per cent in February, following a 0.6 per cent increase in January. The core price growth also matched expectations.

A 0.5 per cent increase in prices for shelter contributed to the core price growth, along with higher prices for recreation, household furnishings and operations, motor vehicle insurance, personal care, and airline fares.

The annual rate of core consumer price growth accelerated to 6.4 per cent in February, from 6.0 per cent in January, showing the fastest growth since August 1982.

On Tuesday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release a separate report on producer prices in the month of February. Economists currently expect producer prices to increase by 0.8 per cent .