The Bureau of Labor Statistics March 2024 Consumer Price Index was released this morning, and came in at a higher than expected year over year rate of 3.5%. This was the 36th month in a row of a 3% or higher inflation rate starting the month after the American Rescue Plan was signed into law. Today’s report almost guarantees the Federal Reserve will hold off on cutting interest rates longer than Wall Street hoped.
Under President Biden, prices have risen 19.4% since he was inaugurated. Contrasting him with the seven prior presidents at the same point in their presidencies, only Carter (36.9%) had a larger increase. The same is true for food where Biden has seen a 21.1% increase in food prices, surpassed only by Carter (34.9%).
While there have been claims about how much gas prices have come down, in looking at the totality of Biden’s tenure, prices have gone up 47.8%. But in this category, two presidents have come in higher: Obama (113.5%) and Carter (104.6%).
For those that have moved to electric vehicles, the cost of electricity has increased as well.
Since Biden’s inauguration, electricity prices have gone up 29.3%. No matter the type of car or truck you might own, the cost to operate it has increased dramatically.
Finally, a critical contrast is that since Biden’s inauguration, weekly wages have increased 14.2%, meaning that wages trail inflation by 5.2%. At the same point in time for under Trump, weekly wages had increased 9.4%, meaning wages had outpaced inflation by 3.1%.
With only seven months to go before the election, today’s inflation report was not good news for the White House. The data indicates there is more work to be done to put inflation behind us.