April 12, 2022: Biden braces for brutal inflation numbers

This morning at 8:30 a.m., the Labor Department will release its newest consumer price index report, and the White House is bracing itself for the political impact of inflation numbers that are widely expected to be the highest yet faced during the Biden administration.

• What to expect: Economists polled by Reuters anticipate that the report will show that, year-over-year, “consumer prices rose 8.4% in March, up from 7.9% in February.” That would be the highest rate since December 1981, notes CNBC.
• Why it’s likely to be that bad: This is the first CPI report since the large jump in oil and gas prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
• Worth noting: “Economists consider two versions of the CPI data: The headline number that includes all prices consumers face, and a so-called core CPI that excludes often volatile food and energy price fluctuations,” writes CNBC’s Thomas Franck. “The White House says it anticipates a wider-than-normal disparity between the headline and core readings because of an abnormal increase in gas prices that occurred last month.”

Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletter

Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.