President Joe Biden has attempted to play down a new annual inflation reading of 7%, the highest level in 40 years, by branding it a ‘global’ issue that his administration is making ‘progress’ with. Persistent supply chain issues have left grocery shelves bare across the nation this week, drawing comparisons to conditions in the former Soviet Union and putting further upward pressure on prices. The Labour Department said Wednesday that the consumer price index rose 0.5% last month after surging 0.8% in November, with Biden apparently trying to highlight that slowing rate of growth as an achievement. That increase pushed annual inflation to 7% in December, which is the highest level since June 1982, and up from November’s 6.8% annual rate. In a statement, Biden called inflation ‘a global challenge’ and claimed the latest numbers were good news, showing the monthly rate of price increases slowed in December from the prior month.

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