The costs of gas, food and other necessities likely shot up in May, giving Americans no respite from the worst outbreak of inflation in four decades, the Associated Press reported. Economists have forecast that overall consumer prices jumped 8.2% last month compared with a year earlier, according to data provider FactSet. That would be barely below the 8.3% year-over-year surge in April and the 8.5% increase in March, which was the most since 1982. And on a month-to-month basis, prices are expected to have jumped 0.8% from April to May, up sharply from a 0.3% increase from March to April. The acceleration would almost certainly be due to gas prices, which had declined in April but leaped more than 10% in May alone and have since reached an average of nearly $5 a gallon nationwide. America’s rampant inflation is imposing severe financial pressures on families, forcing them to pay much more for such items as food, gas and rent. Lower-income and Black and Hispanic Americans, in particular, are struggling because, on average, a larger proportion of their income is consumed by necessities. High inflation has also forced the Federal Reserve into what will likely be the fastest series of interest rate hikes in three decades. By raising borrowing costs aggressively, the Fed hopes to cool spending and growth enough to curb inflation without tipping the economy into a recession. For the Fed, it will be a difficult balancing act. Surveys show that Americans regard high inflation as the nation’s top problem, and a substantial majority disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy. Inflation has remained high even as the sources of rising prices have shifted.
