US inflation likely to get worse, dealing challenge to Fed and Biden

Tough times: A customer shops for meat at a store in San Francisco. Surging prices are eating into family budgets, wiping out the wage increases that US workers have battled for after last year’s jobs wipeout. — AFP

AFTER United States prices climbed by the most in three decades, there’s even worse news ahead for households and policymakers: Inflation likely has further to rise before it peaks.

October’s annual rate was 6.2%, the highest since 1990, as price increases spread well beyond the parts of the economy most disrupted by pandemic closures.