President Joe Biden falsely claimed in a Tuesday speech for the AFL-CIO that inflation is hitting the rest of the world worse than in the United States.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 8.6% year-over-year as of May, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed last week. Over the same period, the Producer Price Index (PPI) — which tracks inflation for wholesalers — increased 10.8%.
“Under my plan for the economy, we’ve made extraordinary progress,” Biden nevertheless argued at the labor union’s conference. “And we put America in a position to tackle the… worldwide problem that’s worse everywhere but here: inflation.”
However, data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shows that the United States boasts higher inflation rates than many other developed countries. The 8.3% inflation rate seen in the United States as of April was higher than the 7.8% rate in the United Kingdom, the 7.4% rate in Germany, the 6.8% rate in Canada, the 6% rate in Italy, the 4.8% rate in South Korea, and the 2.5% rate in Japan.
“Energy prices remained the main contributor to inflation in France, Germany and Italy in April,” the OECD said, “while inflation excluding food and energy continued to drive inflation in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.”
The international organization recently increased its 2022 inflation forecasts for the world’s leading economies, including an upward revision from 4.4% to 5.9% in the United States — a level exceeding expected rates for Australia, France, South Korea, Norway, Switzerland, and Japan.
In response to the most recent inflation report for the United States, Biden again pinned the blame on “Putin’s Price Hike” — a reference to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its role in hiking global energy costs.
“High gas prices at the pump, energy, and food prices accounted for around half of the monthly price increases, and gas pump prices are up by $2 a gallon in many places since Russian troops began to threaten Ukraine,” Biden said in a statement. “Even as we continue our work to defend freedom in Ukraine, we must do more — and quickly — to get prices down here in the United States.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre even insisted that the United States economy remains robust.
“What I’m trying to say to you is that the economy is in a better place than it has been historically,” Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing last week. “And so, we feel, here at this administration and other experts as well… we feel that we are in a good position to take on inflation. We are in a good position to really start really working on lowering prices.”
However, in a recent poll by The Wall Street Journal and the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center (NORC), 83% of respondents described the state of the economy “as poor or not so good.” Meanwhile, 35% said they are not “satisfied at all with their financial situation” — the highest level since the poll started in 1972.
When questioned by a Harvard survey about rising price levels, 95% of respondents said that inflation is “very serious” or “somewhat serious.” A plurality — 47% — said that the Biden administration is responsible.