Article source: ConstructConnect
There’s much to cover, so let’s jump right into a discussion of the some of the most interesting information to be gleaned from the latest public and private sector data releases.
(1) Grizzled old economists, who have lived through previous periods of rapid price inflation, have never put their memories of those difficult periods fully behind them. For nearly two decades, they’ve annoyed their younger colleagues by repeatedly warning of the potential risks of inflation when it seemed the threat of that slumbering bugbear had forever been driven from the landscape. Turns out, they were right. March 2020’s U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) increase of +8.5% y/y was the highest in 40 years. The ‘core’ rate of inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy items, was +6.5% y/y in the latest month.
