President Joe Biden tried to downplay skyrocketing inflation on Sunday, insisting it was only up “just an inch” in the short term.

Biden spoke about inflation during an interview with 60 Minutes aired Sunday, as reporter Scott Pelley reminded him that the annual inflation rate came in at 8.3 percent in August.

“Well, first of all, let’s put this in perspective. Inflation rate month to month was just– just an inch, hardly at all,” Biden replied.

“You’re not arguing that 8.3% is good news,” Pelley replied.

“No, I’m not saying it is good news,” Biden responded. “But it was 8.2% or — 8.2% before. I mean, it’s not — you’re ac — we act — make it sound like all of a sudden, ‘My god, it went to 8.2%.'”

When Pelley reminded him that it was the highest inflation rate in 40 years, Biden replied, “I got that. But guess what we are. We’re in a position where, for the last several months, it hasn’t spiked. It has just barely — it’s been basically even.”

Consumer prices rose in August by one-tenth of a percentage point, even though economists had expected inflation to go down. Median inflation hit the highest level ever recorded. Breitbart’s John Carney explains:

The median Consumer Price Index, which reflects only measures in the center of CPI’s prices changes, rose 0.7 percent compared with the prior month, an acceleration from the 0.5 percent increase recorded in June. The unrounded figure of 0.73789 percent is the highest on record, slightly above the previous record of 0.73078 percent set in June.

This is equivalent to an annual rate of inflation of 9.2 percent. That is the highest on record.

Grocery prices continue to rise month to month, as prices rose 0.7 percent in August compared with July. Prices of food at home rose 13.5 percent from the previous year.

Utility prices are also rising, up 15.8 percent from the previous year and 1.5 percent from the previous month. Natural gas is up 3.5 percent from the previous month — 33 percent year over year.

Biden would not even say that he expected inflation to decline.

“And you would tell the American people that inflation is going to continue to decline?” Pelley asked.

“No,” Biden replied. “I’m telling the American people that we’re gonna get control of inflation.”