This is terrible.
While others in the Biden administration have been optimistic that inflation could subside any day now, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had a far more sobering message: record-high inflation could be here for the rest of the year.
Appearing on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on March 10, Yellen said, “We’re likely to see another year in which 12-month inflation numbers remain very uncomfortably high.”
Her statements on CNBC contradict the ones she made earlier in the year to NPR, where she predicted inflation would slow down in the second half of 2022. But the “uncertainty” that arose as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted Yellen’s revised statements.
On the CNBC show, Yellen highlighted the changes caused by the Russian-Ukraine conflict, saying, “We have seen a very meaningful increase in gas prices, and my guess is that next month we’ll see further evidence of an impact on U.S. inflation of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war on Ukraine.”
Yellen also warned that the Russia-Ukraine conflict would affect far more than gas prices, as she noted food costs could be pushed higher because of the protracted war.
