Shafaqna English– In July, the annualized inflation rate for automobiles in the United States reached approximately 5%, while costs associated with housing and utilities climbed at a pace exceeding 3.5%. Meanwhile, prices for recreational merchandise surged into double-digit territory.
Collectively, these increases meant that American households absorbed a 3.7% rise in their overall cost of living—a figure that is nearly twice the level that the Federal Reserve has consistently pledged to maintain as its benchmark.
The Federal Reserve’s struggle with inflation is far from over: the central bank has missed its 2% target for an unbroken 65-month stretch, a period that encapsulates the entire inflationary cycle from the COVID-induced price spike of 2021—which saw inflation soar to a 40-year peak—through a partial recovery toward the target in 2024, and into a renewed acceleration following President Trump’s return to the White House.
Encouragingly, the last 18 months have produced virtually no meaningful headway, suggesting that the underlying drivers of inflation remain stubbornly entrenched despite aggressive policy interventions.
Source: Reuters