US Inflation for May Hits 8.6%, Above Analysts’ Expectations
US inflation hit 8.6% in May, up from 8.3% in April and above analysts’ expectations.
"While almost all major components increased over the month, the largest contributors were the indexes for shelter, airline fares, used cars and trucks, and new vehicles,” the announcement from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics said.
Today’s inflation number means that a peak in inflation in the US was not reached in March, when the headline consumer price index (CPI) hit 8.5%, and has instead continued higher than expected.
Market participants widely expected the year-over-year inflation number for May to come in unchanged from the month before, according to a Dow Jones survey.
Meanwhile, the so-called core-CPI, which excludes prices on food and energy, came in at 6% year-over-year, down from 6.2% a month earlier.
The consensus among analysts was a core-CPI reading of 5.9%.
Citing an unnamed official in the Biden Administration, the Financial Times wrote before the release that supply chain disruptions from COVID-19-related lockdowns in China, as well as the war in Ukraine, are likely to have maintained “upward pressure on inflation in May.”
Also commenting ahead of the release of today’s inflation numbers, Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi called the consensus “a very disquieting number.”
“It’s going to re-energize concerns about has inflation peaked,” Zandi was cited by CNBC as saying, before adding that “I think we peaked.”
Others, however, were less sure that the peak has been reached, with Wells Fargo senior economist Sarah House saying in the same article that she does not expect inflation has peaked since she sees more upside for oil prices.
“We’ve seen gasoline hit record levels. And naturally what’s prevented the peak from
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