Regular gas is posted at $4.199 a gall at a station on Dec. 10, 2021, in Shoreline, Wash. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
WASHINGTON (Kyodo) -- The consumer price index was up 6.8 percent in November from a year earlier, marking the sharpest rise in over 39 years amid recovery from the economic downturn induced by the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. Labor Department data showed Friday.
The pace of increase for the CPI, which measures the prices of a wide range of goods and services, widened from 6.2 percent in October, adding pressure for the Federal Reserve to accelerate the scale-down of its massive bond-purchasing program.
The high inflation, partly triggered by goods shortages due to supply-chain disruptions, is also feared will stifle economic growth.
President Joe Biden released a statement on the CPI data, saying "price increases continue to squeeze family budgets."
"We are making progress on pandemic related challenges to our supply chain which make it more expensive to get goods on shelves, and I expect more progress on that in the weeks ahead," he said.
The Fed is likely to discuss whether the central bank should speed up its tapering of the bond-buying program when it holds a policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee meeting next Tuesday and Wednesday.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said in a Senate committee hearing on Nov. 30 that the bank should consider an accelerated scaling-down of the program amid growing concerns over rising inflation.
With regard to specific goods, energy prices shot up 33.3 percent, with gasoline prices spiking 58.1 percent.
Prices for used vehicles rose 31.4 percent and the cost of food increased 6.1 percent, while clothing prices went up 5.0 percent.
The core CPI, excluding volatile energy and food prices, grew 4.9 percent from a year before.
The CPI marked a 7.1 percent surge in June, 1982, when the United States experienced prolonged high inflation amid the lackluster economy following the 1979 oil crisis.
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