American consumers absorbed another surge in prices in May — a 0.6% increase over the last month — risking more extended inflation.
Lumber prices quadrupled, leading to sticker shock — and some stalled and canceled projects — for homeowners and developers.
Cereal maker General Mills, Chipotle Mexican Grill and paint maker Sherwin-Williams are among the variety of companies that have been raising prices or plan to do so, in some cases to make up for higher wages that they’re now paying to keep or attract workers. That would be none too soon for consumers such as Carmela Romanello Schaden, a real estate agent in Rockville Centre, N.Y. Schaden said she’s having to pay more for a range of items on visits to her hair salon. But she feels the most pain at the grocery store. Her monthly food bill, she said, is now $200 to $250 for herself and her 25-year-old son — up from $175 earlier in the year.
Officials also note that year-over-year gauges of inflation now look especially large because they are being measured against the early months of the pandemic, when inflation tumbled as the economy all but shut down. In coming months, the year-over-year inflation figures probably will look smaller. “The market is starting to worry that the Fed may be going soft on inflation, and that could let the inflation genie out of the bottle,” said Sung Won Sohn, a professor of economics and finance at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
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