National Economic Council Director Brian Deese dodged a question about inflation Thursday, instead choosing to praise the economic recovery from the Pandemic.
According to a Thursday press briefing by a reporter about Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, Deese did not say anything about how long inflation would last, asked by a reporter.
He pointed out the strength of other economic indicators such as the labor market and wages.
We need to do everything we can to address those directly, because we believe that price increases are the level that we're seeing hitting American families and pocketbooks. We believe that the strength of our economic recovery, the strength of our labor market, and the strength of wage increases, as well as the steps we've taken to try to give some relief to American families will position our economy and American households uniquely well to address a global issue around price increases. Deese said last week when Powell told lawmakers that it is probably a good time to retire that word transitory and explain more clearly what we mean. Powell said that we tend to use transitory to mean that it won't leave a permanent mark in the form of higher inflation.
The statement was a shift from the Fed's position and that of the administration, which had always been that inflation would start falling throughout 2022.
The Fed said that inflation was beyond the Fed's expectations, leading to speculation that it might have to tighten monetary policy to combat it at the expense of the ongoing recovery.
The consumer price index, which includes everyday products such as fuel and groceries, increased by 6.2% in October, the largest surge in inflation since 1990.
Fuel oil prices increased by 12.3% in October, as part of a 59.1% increase over the past year. In October, meat, poultry, fish and eggs increased by 1.7% as part of an 11.9% increase year over year.