Prices rise 5.4 percent in July over last year as the economy claws back from pandemic depths

“It’s new, used and rental cars. It’s airplane tickets. It’s hotels,” Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell said last month, referring to sectors that have seen steep price bumps. “Each of those has a story attached to it that is — it is really about the reopening of the economy. So we look at that, and we think that those are temporary things, because the supply side will respond. The economy will adapt.”