“The rental market feels very tight: Vacancies are very low, and because of that rents are raising at a strong clip,” said Igor Popov, the chief economist at Apartment List.
A few details in the new data could offer glimmers of hope for the Fed and the White House. Some goods prices that had been picking up last year amid shortages are now dropping: Audio and visual products like televisions, for instance, are getting cheaper again. And core inflation, the gauge without food and energy costs, moderated to 6 percent on an annual basis, from 6.2 percent the prior month.
But that deceleration came partly because the figures are now being measured against high readings last year: Inflation had popped in May 2021. That so-called base effect makes annual gains look lower even if prices are climbing steadily month to month.
Overall, the report was a discouraging one for policymakers, and it highlighted that they have their work cut out for them as consumer and business demand remains strong. While the White House has been instituting policies that might help families with inflation around the edges by improving supply or offsetting costs — like trying to clear up port backlogs, or releasing strategic petroleum reserves to mute gas price increases — the task of cooling down consumption falls almost entirely to the central bank.
So far, spending shows little sign of cracking. Even as vacation costs jump off the charts, for instance, travelers continue to book trips.
“The resilience of travel is really remarkable,” Anthony G. Capuano, the chief executive of Marriott International, said during a Tuesday event with analysts, later adding that the hotel company is seeing “extraordinary pricing power.”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/10/business/economy/may-2022-cpi-inflation.html
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