Biden’s treasury sec Janet Yellen says she ‘regrets’ saying inflation was ‘transitory’

Yellen noted that while inflation has gone down, the pace at which it is declining has been slower than what the bulk of Americans hoped for.

"In 2021 you did say that inflation was transitory," Lawrence said. "Do you regret saying that now?"

"I regret saying it was transitory," Yellen replied. "It has come down, but I think transitory means a few weeks or months to most people."

At the time, Yellen said, "I really doubt we're going to see an inflationary cycle," adding that while she expected "somewhat higher inflation over the next several months," it would be "a transitory thing, not something that's associted with a buildup in wage pressures."

This isn't the first time she has owned up to having misjudged the path inflation would take post-pandemic under the Biden administration.

During a congressional hearing in June 2022, for example, she noted that, "when I said that inflation would be transitory, what I was not anticipating was a scenario in which we would end up contending with multiple variants of Covid. I was not envisioning impacts on food and energy prices we've seen from Russia's invasion of Ukraine."

She went on to admit that both she and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell "probably could've used a better term than transitory."

According to CNBC, the consumer price index rose 0.4 percent this month, and 3.8 percent over the past year. Energy costs have also risen by 2.3 percent since last month.