Consumer prices jump 5% in May, fastest pace since the summer of 2008

Consumer prices for May accelerated at their fastest pace in nearly 13 years as inflation pressures continued to build in the U.S. economy, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The consumer price index, which represents a basket including food, energy, groceries, housing costs and sales across a spectrum of goods, rose 5% from a year earlier. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting a gain of 4.7%.

The reading represented the biggest CPI gain since the 5.3% increase in August 2008, just before the financial crisis sent the U.S. spiraling into the worst recession since the Great Depression. Though the inflation readings are well above anything seen since the 2008-09 financial crisis, the Federal Reserve has been largely dismissive of the numbers. Central bank officials believe the current rise is due to temporary factors that will abate as the year goes on and look higher because of comparisons to the year-ago period, when much of the economic activity remained restricted due to pandemic precautions.

Consequently, market participants generally do not expect to see the Fed react to the latest numbers when the policymaking Federal Open Market Committee meets next week. However, the energy index was about flat for the month despite the huge runup in gasoline prices this year, while the food index repeated its April rise of 0.4%.

While inflation was rising, weekly jobless claims were continuing to nudge lower. The total of 376,000 represented a decline of 9,000 from the previous week and marks another low since the March 14, 2020, level that preceded an explosion in unemployment unlike anything the U.S. had seen. Continuing claims fell considerably, dropping by 258,000 to a new pandemic-era low of just below 3.5 million. Around the same time a year ago, the total was 18.9 million.

Consumer prices jump 5% in May, fastest pace since the summer of 2008, CNBC, Jun 11