Biden Insists Inflation Averaged 2%, Even After Data Shows 8.2% Annual Jump – President Biden attempted to fudge the numbers. Thursday, when newly released statistics revealed that consumer prices rose 8.2% year over year last month, Biden insisted that he’s made progress and that inflation is truly on a 2% trajectory.
“Today’s report shows some progress in the fight against higher prices, even as we have more work to do,” Biden said in a written statement. “Inflation over the last three months has averaged 2%, at an annualized rate.” “A lot of people are hurting these days. But today’s report shows, though, some progress,” Biden added during a speech in Los Angeles.
“Overall inflation was 2% over the last three months, that’s down from 11% over the prior three months. That’s progress,” he insisted. Critics slammed the message as deceptive, recalling Biden’s August assertion that there was “zero inflation” in July, despite the government Consumer Price Index recording an 8.5% annual increase in expenditures that month.
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Skeptics on social media said Biden’s claim needed to be checked, pointing out that CPI data for September showed a 13% annual increase in grocery prices, a 19.8% increase in energy prices, and a 6.6% increase in housing expenses.
“First it was the ‘inflation reduction act‘, a marketing spin on more spending that does many things but not reduce inflation. And now it’s spinning numbers to make things appear way better than they are. Inflation is ‘not’ 2% annualized and everyone knows that!” former PayPal president and ex-Facebook payments executive David Marcus wrote.
According to a White House official, the 2% figure reflects the fact that the CPI’s points-based system increased. 5% in the last three months — from 295.328 in June to 296.761 in September — implying a 2% annual rate.
The 5% increase occurred in September, when a 4% increase was recorded, implying that if only last month’s rate was annualized, the annual inflation rate would reach 4.8% in September 2023. In defiance of its own definition of inflation, the Biden administration announced on Thursday an 8.7% cost-of-living adjustment for the 70 million Americans who receive Social Security payments in 2023.
The Federal Reserve’s annual inflation target is 2%, and the central bank has rapidly raised interest rates this year in a bid to keep prices under control. Interest rate hikes have heightened fears of an economic crisis, and gas prices have risen again after falling from record highs in June, increasing fears of further inflation.
The US economy shrank in the first two quarters of 2022, fulfilling the standard definition of a recession, but the White House claims no recession is starting due to low unemployment and a lack of broad economic turmoil. White House economist Brian Deese also put a good spin on the bad inflation statistics in a CNN appearance Thursday morning.
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“The first and most important point is the US is in a better and stronger position to take this challenge head on than virtually any other country in the world, and that’s in no small part because of the policies we’ve put in place,” Deese said. “There was some progress in this report. Headline inflation has come down. A lot of that is gas prices that are down more than $1 per gallon since this summer,” he added.
Conservatives blame Biden-era government spending for rising inflation, whereas Biden blames COVID-19 supply chain delays, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and corporate price gouging.