Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen
Janet YellenBiden to Sign Decree to Regulate Cryptocurrency Issuance The Hill’s Morning Report presented by Emergent BioSolutions, aid to Ukraine and Russian oil top the congressional to-do list. “Uncomfortably high” inflation will last until the end of the year after Labor Department data released that day showed inflation hit a 40-year high last month.
Yellen said on CNBC’s Final Call that high U.S. inflation is likely to last until the end of 2022, exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I don’t want to make predictions about what will happen in the second half of the year,” she said, but added that “we will probably see another year in which 12-month inflation figures remain very low.” uncomfortably high.”
The finance minister’s comments came hours after the labor ministry released data showing inflation hit a 40-year high in February, helped in part by international sanctions imposed on Russia.
The consumer price index rose 7.9 percent in the 12 months ending February, the highest annual inflation rate since January 1982.
Food prices rose 8.6% year on year, rental prices rose 4.8% year on year, and gas prices rose nearly 7% in February alone.
Yellen noted that because both Russia and Ukraine are major wheat producers, the invasion has had an impact on food prices as well as a “very significant increase” in gas prices.
“In the next month, we will see further evidence of the impact on inflation in the United States of Putin’s war with Ukraine,” she added.
Yellen said the tough sanctions imposed by the US and its allies on Russia were the result of “atrocities that peace-loving democracies must stand up to and stand against,” but added that the global community will feel their impact. .
“We designed these sanctions to have the maximum impact on Russia and mitigate the impact on everyone else,” she told CNBC. “But it’s unrealistic to think that we can take action of this magnitude without experiencing any consequences.”