Consumer prices post biggest decline since 2008 as coronavirus puts clamps on inflation [View all]
Source: CNBC Market Watch
CPI shows 20% plunge in gas prices, airfares post record drop
The numbers: One thing anxious Americans don’t have to worry about as the COVID-19 pandemic shuts down large chunks of the economy is inflation. Consumer prices sank 0.8% in April, led by tumbling gasoline prices, marking the biggest decline since the 2008 Great Recession.
Economists polled by MarketWatch had also forecast an 0.8% drop.
Prices at the pump led the decline, the government said Tuesday. Stay-at-home orders kept Americans off the roads and curbed the need to fuel up. Yet prices also fell by record amounts for a variety of other goods and services as businesses cut prices in the face of waning demand.
The pace of inflation over the past 12 months slowed to 0.3% from 1.5% in March and 2.5% at the start of 2020, showing the crisis is putting severe downward pressure on prices despite an emergency infusion of $3 trillion in federal aid to support the economy.
Read more: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/consumer-inflation-posts-biggest-decline-in-april-since-2008-as-prices-sink-cpi-shows-2020-05-12
Looks like a disinflationary shock as one person put it.
Oh babe it ain't no lie!
= new reply since forum marked as read
