U.S. Suffers Under Record Inflation As Draining Strategic Oil Reserves Offers Only Slight Reprieve

Primarily reflecting a one-time drop in gasoline prices, due to the Administration's massive release of Strategic Oil Reserves, year-to-year inflation notched lower for both the April 2022 headline Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) and the ShadowStats-Alternate CPI, from March 2022 levels, which were, and otherwise still are at respective 40-year and 75-year high levels.

• Specifically, year-to-year April 2022 CPI-U inflation eased to 8.3% from 8.5% in March 2022, with the April ShadowStats "Corrected" Alternate CPI slowing to 16.5% from 16.8% in March.

Grocery prices in April rose for five of the six major food categories. Dairy and related products rose 2.5%, marking its largest monthly increase since July 2007. Nonalcoholic beverages followed as the second-highest index with a 2% increase. The 1.4% price increase in April for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs was driven by eggs skyrocketing 10.3%.

Fruits and vegetables, meanwhile, was the only index that dropped for the month, declining 0.3%, down from the 1.5% jump recorded in March.

On a year-over-year basis, prices for all of the food-at-home categories increased. Meats, poultry, fish and eggs jumped up 14.3%, marking the largest 12-month increase since May 1979. Other categories logging steep annual increases included fruits and vegetables (7.8%), cereals and bakery products (10.3%), and eggs (22.6%).