The consumer price index has climbed by nearly 7% this year through November, the fastest pace in nearly four decades.
Arizona Republican Congressman David Schweikert said he thinks inflation could moderate in the coming months.
“I’m still hopeful that we’ll start to see a mitigation sometime next year, just as a lot of the excess savings, as the economists call it, will be used up,” he said.
However, Schweikert said he fears the impact on Americans’ purchasing power will linger for several years.
“The damage has been done,” he said. “It will certainly be years before people’s wages, retirement accounts, everything sort of gets stabilized in its purchasing power.”
However, Schweiker cautioned against quick fixes, like hiking interest rates, that could throw the economy into a recession.