Biden warns US inflation could last 'for a while'

The surging costs have become a political headache for the administration

President Joe Biden speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, May 17, 2022. Biden's six-day trip to South Korea and Japan aims to build rapport with the Asian nations’ leaders. Biden will also be trying to send an unmistakable message to China that Russia’s faltering invasion of Ukraine should give Beijing pause about its own saber-rattling in the Pacific. Biden departs Thursday and is set to meet newly elected South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

By Reuters

Published: Sat 11 Jun 2022, 5:46 PM

President Joe Biden cautioned that US inflation could last "for a while" after data on Friday showed that politically sensitive price pressures unexpectedly accelerated in recent weeks.

"We're gonna live with this inflation for a while," Biden said at a Democratic fundraising event in Beverly Hills. "It's gonna come down gradually, but we're going to live with it for a while."

The wary comments at an event hosted by billionaire media magnate Haim Saban came as the administration faces increasing pressure ahead of the 8 November midterm elections.

The administration and many professional economists initially thought that inflation pressures would be "transitory," easing as the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic continued.

But price pressures have only expanded to additional goods and services globally as the Ukraine crisis took oil and food supplies off an already stretched global market.

US consumer inflation hit a 40-year high 8.6% in the 12 months through May, with gasoline marking a record high and the cost of food soaring, Labor Department data showed.

The surging costs have become a political headache for the Biden administration, which has tried several measures to lower prices but said much of the responsibility to control inflation falls to the Federal Reserve.

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