Breitbart Business Digest: The April Inflation Report Was Even Worse Than It Looked

That Was a Very Bad Inflation Report

We better hope that April showers bring May flowers because last month we got drenched in inflation—and we could use a bloom of good news as we head into the summer months.

Tuesday’s consumer price index (CPI) report was bad enough on the surface. Prices rose 0.6 percent in April, following March’s blistering 0.9 percent increase. Compared with a year ago, consumer prices were up 3.8 percent, a sharp acceleration from the 3.3 percent annual pace recorded in March.

The usual excuses were available. Energy prices did a lot of the damage. The energy index rose 3.8 percent in April and accounted for more than 40 percent of the overall increase. Gasoline prices climbed 5.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis and were up 28.4 percent from a year earlier. Food prices were also firm, rising 0.5 percent for the month,