Price inflation in America is at its highest level in nearly 40 years

US consumer prices jumped last month at the fastest annual pace in nearly 40 years, which means a faster erosion of Americans’ purchasing power and wages, and increases pressure on the Federal Reserve to tighten policy.
The data of the US Department of Labor released today, Friday, showed that the consumer price index increased by 6.8% from what it was in November of 2020, according to Bloomberg.
On a monthly basis (compared to last October), the widely followed inflation measure rose by 0.8%, exceeding expectations of 0.7%.
The increase in the CPI reflects broad advances in most categories, with gasoline, housing, food and automobiles being among the biggest contributors to the monthly increase.
The data reinforces expectations that the Federal Reserve will speed up the rollback of its bond-buying program at the central bank’s last meeting of the year next week.