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The consumer price index increased 6.8% from November 2020, according to Labor Department data released Friday. The widely followed inflation gauge rose 0.8% from October, exceeding forecasts and extending a trend of sizable increases that began earlier this year.
The median forecasts in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 6.8% annual gain and a 0.7% advance in the monthly measure.
The increase in the CPI reflected broad advances in most categories.
The data reinforce expectations the Fed will accelerate the wind down of its bond-buying program at the central bank’s final meeting of the year next week. Central banks — and politicians — around the world have come under increasing pressure to address rising inflation as workers spend more at the grocery store and the gas pump.
A faster tapering would open the door for the Fed to begin increasing interest rates, a move markets now expect by the middle of next year. Annual CPI increases are anticipated to hover near 7% into 2022.
Excluding the volatile food and energy components, so-called core prices rose 0.5% from the prior month. The core CPI was up 4.9% from a year earlier, a fresh 30-year high.
