President Biden said Wednesday’s Labor Department figures showing unchanged price increases for July and a cooling annual inflation rate offer proof that his economic plan “is working.”
Last month’s annual inflation rate of 8.5% is still elevated, but lower than the 41-year high of 9.1% reached in June.
“Today we received news that our economy had 0% inflation in the month of July,” Mr. Biden said in remarks at a bill-signing ceremony at the White House. “When you couple that with last week’s booming jobs report of 520,000 jobs created last month and 3.5% unemployment, it underscores the kind of economy we’ve been building.”
Mr. Biden said despite improving economic data, the U.S. economy still faces headwinds.
“I want to be clear, with the global challenges we face from the war in Europe to disruption of supply chains and pandemic shutdowns in Asia, we could face additional headwinds in the months ahead,” Mr. Biden said. “Our work is far from over.”
The “core” consumer price index continues to run at 6.8% over the past three months, a rate considered to be too hot by economists.
The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates several times this year to bring down inflation and is considering another rate hike at its next meeting in September.
Mr. Biden said the most “consequential” step the country can take to battle inflation is for Congress to pass the Democrats’ so-called Inflation Reduction Act, a $740 billion health care, climate and energy bill passed by the Senate over the weekend. The House is expected to pass the bill later this week.
Critics say the bill will have no impact on inflation.
• Dave Boyer contributed to this story.
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
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