On September 13, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the country’s consumer price index (CPI) inflation jumped by 8.3% annually in August. The reduction was less than expected and market analysts believe the U.S. Federal Reserve will continue its aggressive rate hikes going forward.
US Consumer Prices Increased at an 8% Annual Pace of 8.3%, According to the Latest CPI Report
U.S. inflation numbers for August are in, according to the calculations recently published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Bureau of Labor Statistics wrote on Tuesday that the “consumer price index for all urban consumers (CPI-U) rose 0.1 percent in August on a seasonally adjusted basis after being unchanged in July — Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 8.3 percent before seasonal adjustment.”
CPI 8.3% pic.twitter.com/wY7iYm26ox
— Sven Henrich (@NorthmanTrader) September 13, 2022
Market strategists did not expect the inflation rate to be so high as reports note that “economists had expected prices to dip 0.1% in August over the month and slow to an 8% annual pace.” The economist and gold bug Peter Schiff was quick to criticize the U.S. dollar and the country’s fiscal policy. “Once again the market’s reaction to [a] much higher than expected inflation is wrong,” Schiff tweeted on Tuesday. “Inflation is here to stay, and will get much worse despite rate hikes, due to over a decade of inflationary monetary and fiscal policy. This is very bearish for the dollar and bullish for gold,” Schiff added.
Amid the worse-than-expected inflation report, all four major Wall Street indexes (NYSE, Nasdaq, Dow Jones, S&P 500) slid significantly after the Bureau of Labor Statistics report published on Tuesday. All five precious metals (gold, silver, palladium, platinum, rhodium) saw losses against the U.S. dollar during the past 24 hours, with gold down 1.47%. After printing some gains the day prior, the crypto economy lost 5.8% against the dollar on Tuesday as well. During the last day, bitcoin (BTC) has shed 6% in USD value while ethereum (ETH) is down 8%.
Bankrate.com Analyst Says CPI Is Far From the Fed’s 2% Destination, Gold Bug Peter Schiff Says Sub-2% Inflation Rates Are a Thing of the Past and Will Never Return
Meanwhile, Tuesday’s CPI data has investors believing the Fed will be aggressive when it raises the benchmark bank rate at the next meeting. Mark Hamrick, a senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com, thinks the inflation report for August won’t do much to convince the Fed to act dovish next week. Hamrick expects the U.S. central bank to keep the federal bank rate confined until inflation subsides.
“They want to take their benchmark rate into [economically] restrictive territory and hold it there for longer,” Hamrick opined. “Awaiting what Chairman Jerome Powell has said must be ‘compelling evidence that inflation is moving down, consistent with inflation returning to two percent’ … We remain far from that destination.” Schiff thinks it is absurd that people expect the 2% inflation rate to return, and the gold bug wholeheartedly believes the days of sub-2% inflation will always be a distant memory. In a tweet published on Monday, Schiff stressed:
The days of sub-2% inflation are gone. There’s no going back to the anomaly experienced between the 2008 Financial Crisis and 2021. The inflation chickens the Fed released with QE have finally come home to roost. The price increases experienced thus far are just the beginning.
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Jamie Redman
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