The Mixed Drivers of Inflation Under the Pandemic

Under the pandemic, people got their stimulus checks. There's increased demand for cars at the same time that there was a lack of semiconductors available. New car inflation was essentially plus or minus 1% in that range. And so it jumped at 13% year over year in early 2022. At the same time, if you look at the producer price index for trade services for new car dealers, that rose to 33%. It had never been above 9% prior to that.