Which Higher Prices Are Here to Stay and What Has Increased the most?

Gwynn Guilford with The Wall Street Journal overall consumer prices jumped 5% in May from a year earlier—the biggest increase since 2008, the Labor Department. Some of these increases—such as for airfares, restaurants, and women’s suits—reflect a return to normal, or pre-pandemic price levels, after prices collapsed last year due to business closures and restrictions and consumers’ fear of traveling and getting infected. Some—such as car and truck prices—are due to shortages of specific components or materials. Such jumps are likely to prove temporary and unlikely to lead to persistent increases for years to come.