Booming Atlanta Becomes Epicenter of U.S. Inflation Surge
November 30, 2021 | Bloomberg
Becky Gunn is the Federal Reserve’s eyes and ears on the ground in Atlanta. She’s constantly chatting up business leaders and consumers, prying intelligence out of them that is sent on to policy makers in Washington.
This puts Gunn in a unique position to witness first-hand the greatest inflation surge the U.S. has experienced in decades.
Atlanta, it turns out, is posting faster price increases than any other major metropolitan area in the country, a side effect of the economic boom it’s undergoing.
The city’s annual rate soared to 7.9% in October, well above the 6.2% nationwide average. Gunn says that her business contacts, big and small, in industries from retail to manufacturing and construction, are all seeing price gains across the board.
“Most are just saying ‘Everything is increasing,’” said Gunn, a vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. “Things are increasing multiple times.”
