Please make sure the response includes analysis, supported, where necessary, by limited quotes from the article and/or other materials in the course (such as Coursera and live lecture videos and Background Notes for each module, available under Compass 2G module contents). You must clearly identify both quotations and paraphrasing used through quotation marks, in-text citations, and full reference information.

2.This question is based on a recent article, "Consumer-price inflation in America jumps up to 4.2%", published by the Economist on May 15, 2021. The purpose of including this article in this assignment is to introduce the students to the current conditions and U.S. economy and some of the debates about them. The article includes some macroeconomic analysis, which may not be familiar to all students. But, since we have not yet covered such analysis, it is not the focus of the questions here. Rather, the focus is on factual information and the issues at hand.

(a)According to the article, what was the biggest factor behind the acceleration of consumer price inflation in April 2021?

(b)Economists often pay attention to a "core inflation" measure, which is essentially the same as consumer price index (CPI) but excludes volatile food and energy prices. This measure is considered as a more stable indicator of price trends. According to the article, what was the rate of increase in this measure between March and April 2021? Does the article suggest that this increase by itself means that the U.S. economy will face persistent and elevated inflation this year?

(c)According to the article, what happened to consumer demand in April 2021? What factors have contributed to that change in consumer demand?

(d)The article points out that many supply bottlenecks have emerged in the process of economy recovery in recent months. What are the three main sources of these supply bottlenecks, according to the article?

(e)Toward the end of the article, the writer assesses the factors that may help inflation to subside or persist. What are those factors?