TYLER, TX (EAST TEXAS NEWS) – From the grocery store to the gas station and nearly everything in between, Americans are feeling the sting of inflation.
Earlier this month, the Labor Department said that consumer prices rose 7.5% in the past year, the steepest year-over-year increase since February 1982.
When measured from December to January, inflation stood at 0.6%, the same as the prior month and higher than economists had anticipated. Prices rose 0.7% from October to November and 0.9% from September to October.
A combination of supply and worker shortages, heavy doses of federal aid, ultra-low interest rates, and solid consumer spending converged to push inflation higher last year.
“For most people, for many people, this is the worst inflation they’ve ever seen,” said Harold Doty, professor of management at UT Tyler. “The Federal Reserve is aiming for our inflation rate to be around 2%. That’s a good, steady rate. The problem is that it’s running around 7.5 percent, so it’s not that inflation is bad, it’s that too much inflation is bad.”
Prices aren’t rising due to a single factor, but rather a kind of perfect storm.
“It’s affecting every part of our economy. Much of it stems from a global pandemic, but part of it stems from a new administration that sees things differently than the former one, and it’s driven by global geopolitical events,” said Scott Martínez, CEO of the Tyler Economic Development Council.
“We should begin to see, in the coming months, the sharp increases ease somewhat,” Doty said. “I won’t say it will get better yet, but I think in the coming months it should start to hurt less.”
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