Inflation Highest in 40 Years, with No Letup in Sight

Inflation soared over the past year at its highest rate in four decades, hammering America’s consumers and wiping out pay raises.

The Labor Department said Thursday that consumer prices jumped 7.5% last month compared with 12 months earlier, the steepest year-over-year increase since February 1982.

Shortages of supplies and workers, heavy doses of federal aid, ultra-low interest rates and robust consumer spending combined to send inflation accelerating in the past year.

The rise is reinforcing the Federal Reserve’s decision to begin raising borrowing rates across the economy.

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