(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden said that despite experiencing the most rapid inflation in almost 40 years in November, U.S. price increases are slowing, in particular for gasoline and cars.
“Today’s numbers reflect the pressures that economies around the world are facing as we emerge from a global pandemic -- prices are rising,” Biden said in a statement after a Labor Department report showed a 6.8% annual gain in the consumer price index in November.
“But developments in the weeks after these data were collected last month show that price and cost increase are slowing, although not as quickly as we’d like,” he said.
The inflation gauge rose 0.8% from October, slightly exceeding forecasts, but the annual CPI figure -- the most rapid inflation the nation’s experienced since 1982 -- was in-line with expectations.
Biden said that “half of the price increases in this report are in cars and energy costs from November” and that since then, prices have begun to slide in both sectors.
“Even with this progress, price increases continue to squeeze family budgets,” he said. “We are making progress on pandemic related challenges to our supply chain which make it more expensive to get goods on shelves, and I expect more progress on that in the weeks ahead.”
He called on Congress to pass his “Build Back Better” legislation, a package of spending on climate and social priorities coupled with tax increases that he has portrayed as combating inflation by including policies intended to lower families’ costs for prescription drugs, child and elderly care and other services.
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