Today’s inflation report would have done little to quell any inflation fears. On the contrary, inflation fears are now likely to pick up further following today’s report.
Overall, the March inflation data continued to confirm one important feature of the current inflationary environment: broad-based price pressures. Indeed, inflation is now everywhere. Price rises are broad-based and gaining momentum.
What next? We now think CPI will cross 9% y-o-y in next month’s April data.
That would mark the highest annual rate we’ve ever seen on record (for CPI). And in October, we see headline CPI pushing above 9.5% y-o-y. We expect headline CPI to average 8.3% y-o-y for 2022 (and 9% y-o-y over the remainder of the year).
