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Consumer prices for April showed a 4.2% year-on-year increase today, outpacing analysts’ expectations. What does rising inflation mean for the path of the economy in 2021? On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by Risk Proof, a PwC product — ABA Economic Research Specialist Hugo Dante goes beyond the headlines with inflation figures. Among other issues, Dante discusses: The extent to which inflation figures are due to “base effects” driven by the economic shock during the spring of 2020. The unusual transitory nature of consumer demand in the wake of pandemic-related closures and supply chain disruptions. How post-pandemic employment trends are affecting the inflation outlook. The Fed’s pre-COVID-19 willingness to let inflation run moderately over its 2% target to reflect periods when it ran under the target. This episode is sponsored by Risk Proof, a PwC product. Read Dante’s Banking Journal article “Should We Be Worried about Inflation?“