纽约时报 美国物价飙升--通胀持续(2)（在线收听）

The Ukraine invasion is poised to compound a stubborn inflation problem.

入侵乌克兰将加剧顽固的通胀问题。

Cost increases had been running fast for a year and accelerating for months, posing a problem for the Federal Reserve, which is in charge of achieving price stability.

过去一年里，成本一直在快速上升，而且几个月来还在加速，这给负责实现价格稳定的美联储带来了问题。

The central bank has signaled it will raise interest rates by a quarter percentage point at its meeting next week, probably the first in a series of moves meant to increase the cost of borrowing and spending money and slow down the economy.

美国中央银行已经暗示，将在下周的会议上加息25个基点，这可能是旨在提高借贷和支出成本、减缓经济增长的一系列举措中的第一步。

By reducing consumption and slowing the labor market, the Fed is able to take some pressure off inflation over time.

通过减少消费和减缓劳动力市场，美联储能够在一定程度上减轻通胀压力。

Broadening price pressures and high gas costs could become a serious issue for central bank policymakers if they help convince consumers that the run-up in prices will last.

如果美国央行决策者能够帮助消费者相信价格上涨将持续下去，那么价格压力的扩大和高油价可能会成为一个严重问题。

If people begin expecting inflation, they may change their behavior in ways that make it more permanent: accepting price increases more readily, and asking for bigger raises to keep up.

如果人们开始预期通胀，他们可能会改变自己的行为方式，使通胀变得更加持久:接受价格上涨变得更容易，要求更大幅度的加薪以跟上高物价。

“It was another bad report,” said Laura Rosner-Warburton, senior economist at MacroPolicy Perspectives.

“这又是一份糟糕的报告，”宏观政策展望(MacroPolicy Perspectives)高级经济学家劳拉·罗斯纳·沃伯顿表示。

“Inflation was already way too high before the invasion of Ukraine.”

“在入侵乌克兰之前，通货膨胀就已经很高了。”

While the February report caught only a few days of post-invasion gas prices, the increase in fuel accounted for about a third of the price index increase, the government said.

政府表示，虽然2月份的报告只记录了入侵后几天的石油价格，但燃料价格的上涨占价格指数上涨的三分之一左右。

Omair Sharif, founder of Inflation Insights, said he expected inflation to pick up to 8.3 percent in March as pump prices surge.

通胀洞察(Inflation Insights)创始人奥马尔·谢里夫表示，他预计随着汽油价格飙升，3月通胀率将升至8.3%。

Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen on Thursday predicted more inflation ahead as a result of Russia’s invasion and the economic sanctions Western countries have placed on Mr. Putin’s regime.

美国财政部长珍妮特·耶伦周四预测，由于俄罗斯的入侵和西方国家对普京政权的经济制裁，未来会出现更多通胀。

“We’ve seen a very meaningful increase in gas prices,” Ms. Yellen said on CNBC.

“我们已经看到汽油价格出现了非常有意义的上涨，”耶伦在接受CNBC采访时说。

“And my guess is that next month we’ll see a further evidence of an impact on U.S. inflation of Putin’s war on Ukraine.”

“我的猜测是，下个月，我们将看到进一步的证据，表明普京对乌克兰的战争对美国通胀的影响。”

The gas shock is just the latest instance in which what can go wrong seems to be going wrong when it comes to prices.

“汽油价格冲击”只是一个最新的例子，在价格方面，可能出问题的地方似乎正在出问题。