US inflation has its biggest spike since … 1982!

Inflation jumped 0.8% last month after rising 0.9% in October, the Labor Department said on Friday.

In the 12 months through November, the consumer price index accelerated 6.8%, the largest increase since June 1982.

“The United States has experienced six months of inflation above 5%,” Heather Long, economics specialist at the Washington Post, said on Twitter.

Core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 0.5% compared to October and 4.9% compared to November 2020.

Inflation beat the expectations of economists consulted by the Dow Jones, who forecast a rise of 6.7% for November and 4.9% for core inflation.

Energy prices increased 33.3% since November 2020. And gasoline, alone, increased at a rate of 58.1% at an annual rate.

“As supply shortages are likely to persist into next year and service sector prices are trending upward, inflation will worsen before starting to improve,” Wells senior economist Sam Bullard told Reuters Fargo in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The historical levels of inflation are used by the Republican Party to claim President Joe Biden for his economic performance. This is the ‘Biden Boom’, tweeted the official account of the Conservative party, listing the products with the highest price increases for North American consumers, among which are gasoline, cars, electricity and food.

With information from Reuters