Inflation Soars to Highest Level in 40 Years

The Consumer Price Index increased 0.5 percent in December, bringing the key inflation indicator’s year-over-year increase to 7 percent.

The CPI soared to 7 percent on a year-over-year basis in December, the highest level since 1982, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday, per the Daily Caller.

The core price index, which measures inflation of goods minus food and energy, increased 0.6 percent in December, up from November’s 0.5 percent.

Food prices grew 6.3 percent on a year-over-year basis, and energy prices skyrocketed 29.3 percent over the last year.

During his confirmation hearing Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that the U.S. economy is strong enough to begin a stricter monetary policy, including increasing interest rates and ending its monthly asset purchases.

“As we move through this year…if things develop as expected, we’ll be normalizing policy, meaning we’re going to end our asset purchases in March, meaning we’ll be raising rates over the course of the year,” Powell said. “At some point perhaps later this year we will start to allow the balance sheet to run off, and that’s just the road to normalizing policy.”