After two painful inflation reports this week, some economists think that inflation could push even higher in the coming months — bad news for consumers and for President Donald Trump.The war in Iran and subsequent energy price increases have pushed up headline inflation to levels not seen since 2023. And a big question on the minds of economists, consumers, and politicians is whether it has peaked or if it could keep getting worse.
“I don’t think we’ve hit the peak,” Stephen Kates, a financial analyst at Bankrate, told the Washington Examiner.
This week was a big one for inflation news.
First, the most closely watched consumer price index showed that annual inflation spiked by 0.5 percentage points to 3.8% for the year ending in April. The April inflation reading was the highest since May 2023. In March alone, prices rose 0.9%.
And on Wednesday, the producer price index showed wholesale inflation shot up to a blistering 6%, the biggest increase since 2022. It increased an astonishing 1.4% in April alone.
