Biden mostly right that the US inflation rate is the lowest among leading economies

Joe Biden

Statement: U.S. inflation is "now down close to 3%, the lowest among the world’s leading economies."

High inflation rates have bedeviled Joe Biden during much of his presidency. But in recent remarks, he expressed optimism that the U.S. has turned a corner in its effort to fight fast-rising prices.

"While we have more to do, inflation is down by two-thirds," Biden said during an Aug. 29 speech about lowering health care costs. "Inflation is now down close to 3%, the lowest among the world’s leading economies."

We’ve previously reported that parts of that statement are correct: Inflation is down by about two-thirds from its peak in summer 2022, and it currently measures just over 3% compared with prices one year earlier.

But does the U.S. have the lowest inflation rate among the world’s leading economies?

When we last addressed how the U.S. ranks internationally in inflation — in June 2022, at the height of U.S. inflation — we found that although inflation had risen above pre-COVID-19 levels in every major economy around the world, inflation in the United States had spiked higher than its most direct competitors.

Now, though, the United States is beating its competitors in lowering inflation. The U.S. has a lower inflation rate than any other member of the G7 group of large economies. And among a broader group of advanced industrialized nations, only a few countries beat the United States’ inflation rate.

First, let’s look at the members of the G7 — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. (Current data are not available for Japan, so we’ll set it aside.)

For the first half of 2022, the U.S. had the highest inflation rate of any G7 country. But in the most recent data, covering July 2023, that has reversed: The U.S. now has the lowest inflation of any G7 country.

From February 2023 to June 2023, the U.S. was a close second to Canada for the G7’s lowest inflation rate. Then, in July 2023, the United States edged slightly lower than Canada, sealing its lowest-in-the-G7 status.

In July 2023, the United States’ 3.2% rate was better than Canada’s 3.3%, France’s 4.3%, Italy’s 5.9% and Germany’s 6.2%, and it was half of the United Kingdom’s 6.4% rate.

The White House pointed PolitiFact to slightly different data compiled by its own Council of Economic Advisers that sought to iron out methodological differences in how different countries calculate inflation. But the conclusion aligned with our findings: After tracking higher than the other G7 nations in early 2022, inflation in the U.S. now rests at the bottom of the G7.

If you expand the field of economic rivals, the U.S. inflation rate continues to fare better.

The U.S. rate is below the average for the G20, a group of 20 nations with large economies. For June 2023, the most recent data available, the average inflation rate for G20 nations was 5.5%.

The same holds if you look at members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which includes most European nations and selected large economies from the Americas, Asia and elsewhere.

Beyond the G7 nations, the U.S. also boasts a lower inflation rate than such countries as Belgium, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

Only a few OECD countries reported inflation rates lower than the United States’: Denmark, Greece, Portugal, South Korea, Spain and Switzerland.

Our ruling

Biden said that current U.S. inflation is "the lowest among the world’s leading economies."

Starting in July 2023, the U.S. passed Canada for the lowest inflation among the G7 countries.

Looking at the most recent data for a larger grouping of 30-plus large economies, the U.S. has one of the lowest inflation rates, but a few countries — Denmark, Greece, Portugal, South Korea, Spain and Switzerland — have lower inflation than the U.S. does.

We rate the statement Mostly True.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Biden mostly right that US inflation rate is lowest among key nations