As the causes of US inflation grow, so do the dangers
WASHINGTON — What keeps driving inflation so high? The answer, it seems, is nearly everything.
Supply chain snarls and parts shortages inflated the cost of factory goods when the economy rocketed out of the pandemic recession two years ago. Then it was a surge in consumer spending fueled by federal stimulus checks. Then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted gas and food supplies and sent those prices skyward.
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Since March, the Federal Reserve has been aggressively raising interest rates to try to cool the price spikes. So far, there’s little sign of progress. Thursday’s report on consumer prices in September came in hotter than expected even as some previously big drivers of inflation — gas prices, used cars — fell for a third straight month.
Consumer prices, excluding volatile food and energy costs, skyrocketed 6.6% from a year ago — the fastest such pace in four decades. Overall inflation did decline a touch, mostly because of cheaper gas. But costlier food, medical care and housing pointed to a widening of price pressures across the economy.
High inflation has now spread well beyond physical goods to the nation’s vast service sector, which includes everything from dental care and apartment rents to auto repairs and hotel rates. The broadening of inflation makes it harder to tame. Thursday’s report underscored that the Fed may have to jack up its key short-term rate even higher than had been expected — and keep it there longer — to curb inflation.
Such action would mean even higher loan rates for consumers and businesses. It could also cause recessions in both the U.S. and global economies, international financial officials warn. Higher U.S. rates encourage investors to pull money from foreign markets and invest it in U.S. assets for a higher return, a shift that can cause upheaval in overseas economies.
Here’s what’s driving persistent inflation and what it means:
SPENDING STILL HOLDING UP — FOR SOME
Consumers, on the whole, are still managing to spend more, even though average wage gains over the past year haven’t kept up with inflation. Many businesses, particularly larger corporations, have taken advantage of rising wages and increased consumer savings from government stimulus checks to raise their prices.
PepsiCo, for example, said Wednesday that while purchases by volume fell 1% in the third quarter of the year, it was able to boost prices 17% without losing customers.
“We obviously exited the third quarter with the consumer still very healthy in terms of our particular categories,” the company’s chief financial officer, Hugh Johnston, told investors.
Still, for many Americans, declining wages (after adjusting for inflation) could eventually slow demand and help force companies to lower prices.
Already there are signs that some Americans, particularly lower-income families, are balking at inflated prices. Sales of used cars fell over the summer. One major car dealer, the CarMax chain, blamed “vehicle affordability challenges that stem from widespread inflationary pressures, as well as climbing interest rates” for the decline.
At the same time, Jonathan Smoke, chief economist at Cox Automotive, said that many higher-income consumers have stepped into the used car market, offsetting at least some of the loss from previous buyers.
“We see increases in higher-income households buying used vehicles,” Smoke said. “The profile of who’s buying used is a dramatically upper-scale type of customer.”
SERVICES INFLATION TAKES OVER
Rising prices can often lead consumers to switch their spending to other things, rather than cutting back overall. Right now, for instance, Americans are switching more of their spending from physical goods to services. And that shift is evident in the categories where prices are rising.
“Most people in America spend pretty much their whole budget anyway,” said Eric Swanson, an economics professor at the University of California, Irvine. “So the money’s going to get spent, it’s just a question of what it’s going to get spent on.”
In September, the price of one major service — restaurant meals — jumped 8.5% from a year earlier. It was the largest such increase in 41 years. Likewise, Delta and American Airlines are reporting strong revenue gains as more Americans show willingness to spend on travel.
