WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that inflation as measured by the consumer price index (CPI) on all items increased by 3.7% for the 12 months ending in August. Core inflation, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, rose at a pace of 4.3% in August from a year prior. The shelter and food indices increased 7.3% and 4%, respectively, over the past 12 months. Real wages increased by 0.3%.
Patrice Onwuka, director of the Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO) at IWF, issued the following statement:
“Inflation is making a comeback in a troubling sign that any relief from painfully high prices was brief and is fast fleeting. Rising energy prices due to OPEC’s oil production cuts are the driving force behind the headline inflation rate rising for the second month in a row. However, other measures of inflation that isolate goods with volatile price changes like energy present a clearer picture of the prices of goods and services families pay for every day such as rent, electricity, insurance, and clothing. Prices on these goods are two to three times higher than they were at the start of 2021, the reference point that Americans think back to.
“Households don’t have a perception problem about inflation. Consumers, especially women, are well aware of the painfully high prices at the grocery store, the gas pump, the department store, and the restaurant. Nearly three in four voters say inflation is headed in the wrong direction, and they are right. Despite the Biden administration’s messaging, Americans know firsthand that prices are high and their wages are not keeping up.
“Bidenomics—President Biden’s economic agenda of excessive federal spending and onerous regulations—is largely responsible for inflation taking off soon after he took office and remaining high. Americans have connected those dots as two out of three disapprove of his handling of inflation and rising costs. The misleading Inflation Reduction Act was never intended to cool inflation, but advance a radical climate-change agenda that makes life less affordable at a time when poor and middle-class households struggle to stay afloat financially.”