Around the world, inflation is increasingly an issue as nations emerge from the pandemic. In the U.S., pressure is on President Joe Biden to address rising costs of food, rent and gas. Michelle Quinn reports.

As the U.S. recovers from the pandemic, two stark economic realities are happening at once. People are finding work and wages are up. But costs have risen over the past year, especially for gas.

Concern about inflation is a problem for President Joe Biden as he faces midterm elections this year. A new ABC News/Ipsos poll out Sunday shows that just 28% of voters approve of Biden's handling of inflation.

Biden said he would continue to let the Federal Reserve, which has tightened monetary policies in recent months, do its job. And he will implement new efforts to bring down the cost of energy and housing.

Experts say the Biden administration needs to cool inflation but not so much that it kicks the economy into a recession. Pete Buttigieg, U.S. transportation secretary, said there will continue to be strong economic growth.

Pete Buttigieg, US Transportation Secretary:

“What we are doing is preparing for the road ahead where you're not going to see this kind of swift, red-hot, wildly fast economic growth that we had over the last year or so, but still expecting strong economic growth and working to keep it this way.”

Gas prices are of particular concern. While prices rose over the past year, they have surged higher during the war in Ukraine with Russian production dropping due to Western sanctions. Republicans say that Biden doesn’t have a plan to stop inflation.

Senator Rick Scott, Republican:

“Biden’s a rich kid... has no idea how to deal with inflation, has no plan to deal with inflation. All he does is blame everybody else, including Putin, for his inflation.”

Last week, the Biden administration hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough a decision from the group of oil-producing nations that it would increase supply of crude oil over the next two months.

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