'I really had sticker shock': Will a reopening economy mean surging prices for Americans?
![Consumer prices have risen more sharply recently.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.usatoday.com/gcdn/media/2020/04/10/USATODAY/usatsports/247WallSt.com-247WS-680960-imageforentry3-vmw.jpg?width=980&height=551&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
![Portrait of Paul Davidson](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.usatoday.com/gcdn/media/2019/03/13/USATODAY/USATODAY/636880765210118832-Paul-Davidson.jpg?crop=600,600,x0,y0&width=48&height=48&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
Deborah Widger of Queens, New York, normally rents a car to drive to the Philadelphia area to visit her parents several times over the summer.
But she says rental car prices are up 20% to 30% since her last visit and a three-day weekend rental would cost $500.
“I’ll take Amtrak,” says Widger, a retail consultant who lost her clients because of the pandemic and lives on enhanced unemployment benefits.
Consumer prices jumped 4.2% annually in April, the most in 13 years, sparking this question: Is it a blip or a harrowing return to the 1970s?
It isn’t just the usual culprit: gasoline. Pump prices have soared 50% from a year ago, but a core inflation reading that strips out volatile energy and food items increased 3% annually, the largest advance in 25 years.
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