White House bracing for ‘extraordinarily elevated’ inflation ahead of next report

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/white-house-bracing-for-extraordinarily-elevated-inflation-ahead-of-next-report

Sounds like tomorrow's CPI reading is going to be painful. I'm having a hard time understanding how "we are in a better place than we were last month" and yet headline inflation is also going to be "extraordinarily elevated."

Full article text:

by Christian Datoc, White House Reporter

The Biden administration is bracing for inflation to continue its historic rise when the March Consumer Price Index is published Tuesday morning.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in Monday's briefing that while "we are in a better place than we were last month," the administration expects "headline inflation to be extraordinarily elevated due to Putin's price hike."

Psaki noted that the previous CPI report did not factor in jumps in energy prices brought about by the war in Ukraine but stressed that the United States is in "a better place than we were last month."

"We expect a large difference between core and headline inflation, reflecting the global disruptions in energy and food markets," she continued. "Of course, we know that core inflation, energy, the impact of energy, of course, on oil prices, gas prices — we expect that to continue to reflect what we've seen the increases be over the course of this invasion."

Furthermore, Psaki used the opportunity to push Congress to pass the remainder of President Joe Biden's economic agenda and "reduce costs for the American people."

"We have, of course, legislation that could do exactly that and cut the cost of childcare, of healthcare, of elder care," she stated. "These all have enormous impacts on people's budgets, on when they're doing those calculations at their kitchen table, and certainly, this data will be a reminder of the need to do something and take additional steps."