The rate of price inflation increased again in the United States in February. While the annual inflation rate was 7.5 per cent in January, it was 0.4 percentage point higher in February.
The last time the United States experienced inflation at 7.9 per cent was in the first half of the 1980s, when the second oil shock was receding. Since then, prices have risen by a maximum of six per cent, and that was in the early 1990s as a result of the first Gulf War.
While in previous months prices were driven up primarily by shortages of various industrial commodities due to the post-Cold War economic recovery, factors coming from the oil and gas market have now been added. Rising energy commodity prices are already making their way into food prices. The average price of gasoline at U.S. pumps is currently $4.32 per gallon (about four liters), up nearly a dollar from a month ago.
As a result of accelerating inflation, Americans’ real wages are falling. They fell by 2.6 per cent year-on-year in February. According to Reuters, economists expect the rate of price increases to get above eight percent in March or April, after which it should slowly decline.
