US inflation surges to near-40 year high, testing Biden

United States consumer prices rose last month at a rate not seen in nearly 40 years, the government reported, underscoring how inflation threatens the world's largest economy and President Joe Biden's public support.

The Labor Department's consumer price index jumped 6.8 percent compared to November of last year, its biggest gain since June 1982 as prices for gasoline, used cars, rent, food and other goods continued to climb.

While the report contained signs that the inflation wave may be reaching a crest, it nonetheless poses a political liability for the president, with the Republican opposition using it to argue against his economic policies.

Biden countered that the report did not encompass recent declines in prices of energy and used cars – two main drivers of the high inflation readings seen this year – and that supply chain issues which have driven prices higher are being resolved.

"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.

He added that "price and cost increase are slowing, although not as quickly as we'd like," but later acknowledged inflation was "a real bump in the road."

Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell blamed the White House for the price spikes, saying that the data "confirm what every American family already knows: Inflation is out of control on the Democrats' watch."

Gasoline prices rose 6.1 percent last month, while prices of used cars climbed 2.5 percent, according to the CPI report.

However, those were both the same increases as in October.

The month-on-month rate of consumer price inflation also decelerated slightly to 0.8 percent, but that was nonetheless higher than expected.

Biden made fighting inflation a top priority last month after the CPI in October saw its sharpest annual increase since 1990.

That surprised analysts and gave Republicans ammunition to use against Biden's landmark Build Back Better plan, which would spend US$1.8 trillion on improving social services and fighting climate change but faces a tough road in Congress, which his Democrats control by a narrow margin.

A variety of factors have caused the price increases, including shortages of components and workers, high demand for goods and rebounds in industries that were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic but are now recovering with the help of vaccines.