WASHINGTON, Nov 23, 2021 (BSS/AFP) - US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen
said Monday she expects current record-high inflation to ease, with monthly
rates falling back to 0.2 or 0.3 percent in the second half of 2022.

  "I'm hoping and expecting in the second half of next year, to see monthly
CPI (consumer price index) rates coming in more in the range of two tenths or
three tenths," Yellen told an annual meeting of the Greater Providence
Chamber of Commerce in the state of Rhode Island.

  "I think in the second half of next year, we'll begin to see inflation
subside and the way you'll be able to see that is by looking at monthly
inflation rates," added Yellen, who addressed the forum virtually.

  US President Joe Biden has made fighting inflation a top priority after
data showed consumer prices hit a 30-year high in October, fueling a slump in
his public approval.

  In October, prices rose 0.9 percent compared to September, according to the
CPI index of the Department of Labor.

  Compared to October 2020, inflation reached 6.2 percent, its highest level
in 30 years.

  The annual inflation rate will decline at a slower pace, Yellen said.

  She added that as demand shifts from goods to services and as immunization
is ramped up in Asia, where a large part of the goods imported and sold in
the United States and around the world are manufactured, supply chain
pressures will ease.

  Another index measuring inflation, the PCE, favored by the US Federal
Reserve, is slated to be released on Wednesday.

  Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, whom Biden reappointed Monday for a second
term, said that the regulator will work to prevent high levels of US
inflation from "becoming entrenched."