US inflation slips from 40-year peak but remains high at 8.5%

WASHINGTON - Falling gas prices gave Americans a slight break from the pain of high inflation last month, though the surge in overall prices slowed only modestly from the four-decade high it reached in June.Consumer prices jumped 8.5% in July compared with a year earlier, the government said Wednesday, down from a 9.1% year-over-year jump in June.

On a monthly basis, prices were unchanged from June to July, the smallest such rise more than two years.Still, prices are spiking across a wide range of goods and services, leaving most Americans worse off.

Average paychecks are rising faster than they have in decades — but not fast enough to keep up with accelerating costs for such items as food, rent, autos and medical services.President Joe Biden has pointed to declining gas prices as a sign that his policies — including large releases of oil from the nation’s strategic reserve — are helping lessen the higher costs that have strained Americans’ finances, particularly for lower-income Americans and Black and Hispanic households.Yet Republicans are stressing the persistence of high inflation as a top issue in the midterm congressional elections, with polls showing that elevated prices have driven Biden’s approval ratings down sharply.FILE - Aerial view showing containers in the port of Buenos Aires on the Rio de la Plata river (River Plate), on August 3, 2022. (Photo by LUIS ROBAYO/AFP via Getty Images) On Friday, the House is poised to give final congressional approval to a revived tax-and-climate package pushed by Biden and Democratic lawmakers.