Americans now have $100 more each month than they did last year despite record inflation, US President Joe Biden said this week, commenting on unemployment insurance claims.
“Americans are back at work at a record-setting pace. And families have more money in their pockets: Americans on average have about $100 more in their pockets each month than they did last year, after accounting for inflation,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House press service on Thursday.
According to the US Department of Labor, consumer prices in the US accelerated growth to 6.8% year-on-year in November from 6.2% a month earlier, and jumped 0.8% on a monthly basis. This means that annual inflation in the US has reached a high of nearly 40 years. At the end of June 1982, it amounted to 7.2%.
At the same time, US core inflation – with the exception of food and energy prices – reached 4.9%, including growth of 0.5% in November alone. On a yearly basis, food prices rose 6.1%, while energy prices jumped by 33.3%.
These numbers reflect the pressures facing nearly all economies around the globe as they emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, Biden said, stressing that lowering prices and getting people back to work is the priority of his administration in the near term.
“We have struggled – like virtually every other developed economy dealing with the pandemic – with rising prices and supply chain woes … Our economic recovery has two key components: Getting America back to work, and getting prices and supply chains back to normal. Simply put, it is about jobs and prices,” he stated.
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