Overall inflation should ease in coming months as gasoline and other energy prices continue to pull back, but core inflation is expected to drift higher as the supply snags are ironed out.
USA TODAY
Another month, another record-setting leap in prices.
Inflation hit a fresh 39-year high in December as a drop in energy costs wasn’t enough to offset a steady march upward for staples such as food, rent and cars amid stubborn supply-chain bottlenecks and worker shortages.
The consumer price index jumped 7% last year, the fastest pace since 1982, the Labor Department reported. That’s up from 6.8% annually in November, which was also a nearly four-decade high.
