U.S. consumer prices surged five percent from one year ago, reaching the highest annual inflation rate in nearly 13 years.
Following a 4.2 percent rise in April, the Labor Department said May’s strong climb in consumer inflation was the largest since August of 2008.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the core-price index, which includes food and energy, rose 3.8 percent in May. This marks the largest increase for that reading since June of 1992.
On a month-to-month basis, overall prices rose a seasonally adjusted .6 percent and core prices rose .7 percent.
The annual inflation measurements are being boosted by comparisons with figures from last year during the COVID-19 pandemic, when prices sank because of a lack of demand for many goods and services.
Indeed, as American economic recovery ramps up, consumers are seeing prices climb. The increase in prices demonstrates increasing consumer demand, bolstered by the vaccine rates, relaxed business restrictions, pandemic relief programs and household savings.
The U.S. gross domestic product rose 6.4 percent at a seasonally adjusted annual rate in the first quarter, and economists forecast the economy to grow at an 8.1 percent annual rate in the second quarter. This could be its best year since the early 1980s.