The CPI in Dec. 2021 was 278.802. That means that something that cost $100 in 1982 cost $278.80 in Dec. 2021 (see "Consumer Price Index Data from 1913 to 2022" which is linked on the side a bit lower down).
The CPI was 260.474 in Dec. 2020. So 278.802 is 7% higher than that. The last time inflation was at least that high was in 1981 when it was 8.9%. The next highest since 1981 was 6.1% in 1990. No other year reached even 5% since 1981 until last year. From 1991-2020, only 7 years were 3% or higher and only 1 reached 4%.
The CPI for all of 2021 was 270.970 while for 2020 it was 258.811. That would give us a 4.7% inflation rate (taking the average CPI over all 12 months for both years). Not as bad as 7%, but it is the highest rate by that method since 1991 when it was 5.4%.
The possible good news is that the increase in prices slowed down a bit in the last 3 months of the year. Here are the percentage increases in the CPI for the last 3 months of 2021
Oct) 0.83%
Nov) 0.49%
Dec) 0.31%
So the increases are getting smaller, although if you go up 0.31% every month for the whole year the inflation rate is 3.75%, above the target of 2% for the Federal Reserve Board (they actually use the PCE, not the CPI-see a related post How Does The Fed Prefer To Measure Inflation).
The following table shows the monthly inflation rates for the last 3 months of each year from 2010-2021. Hard to see any pattern, but often prices come down (when there is a negative sign) or don't rise much the last 3 months, so it could be that what we saw in 2021 was fairly normal. The CPI is seasonally adjusted. See Consumer Price Index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
|
|
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
|
2010 |
0.12% |
0.04% |
0.17% |
|
2011 |
-0.21% |
-0.08% |
-0.25% |
|
2012 |
-0.04% |
-0.47% |
-0.27% |
|
2013 |
-0.26% |
-0.20% |
-0.01% |
|
2014 |
-0.25% |
-0.54% |
-0.57% |
|
2015 |
-0.04% |
-0.21% |
-0.34% |
|
2016 |
0.12% |
-0.16% |
0.03% |
|
2017 |
-0.06% |
0.00% |
-0.06% |
|
2018 |
0.18% |
-0.33% |
-0.32% |
|
2019 |
0.23% |
-0.05% |
-0.09% |
|
2020 |
0.04% |
-0.06% |
0.09% |
|
2021 |
0.83% |
0.49% |
0.31% |
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