Briefing

How Broad-Based Is the Recent High Inflation?

Abstract: PCE inflation has been high from March through July. Much commentary has emphasized the contributions of a few extremely large price increases. This Economic Brief provides graphical descriptions of the recent contributions of large price increases to inflation. We then evaluate those recent contributions against their behavior over the last 25 years of low and stable inflation. We find that inflation has been somewhat higher than what one would have predicted based on the past relationship between the contributions of the largest price increases and inflation.

Keywords: Monetary policy and inflation;

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

Part of Series: Richmond Fed Economic Brief

Publication Date: 2021-09

Volume: 21

Issue: 30