Presidential debate Trump, Harris economy facts

When Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump take the debate stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, expect them to come with plenty of talking points about the U.S. economy.

In the weeks leading up to the head-to-head debate hosted by ABC News, both Harris and Trump presented new economic proposals. They also tried to portray their rivals as a threat to the health and stability of the US economy.

As the candidates try to pitch the economy on favorable terms Tuesday, keep these key numbers in mind.

• 1.4%: Consumer Price Index at the start of the Biden-Harris administration in January 2021. President Joe Biden has repeatedly claimed that he inherited a 9% inflation rate from Trump, which is a lie.
• 9.1%: The CPI in June 2022 is the height of post-pandemic inflation growth under Biden and the highest since 1981. Trump has repeatedly claimed that this is the highest inflation in US history, but this is a lie.
• 2.9%: Annual CPI in July of this year, the latest reading. This is the lowest 12-month inflation since March 2021. The next CPI report will be released on Wednesday.
• 19.4% Cumulative price increases since Biden and Harris took office, according to CNBC’s analysis of CPI data. Trump has falsely claimed that since January 2021, aggregate prices have increased by more than 50%.
• 7.8%: According to CNBC’s analysis of CPI data over time, the cumulative increase in prices over the four years Trump was in office.

• 14.8%: The unemployment rate in April 2020 is the highest single month of the Trump administration when employers are bleeding jobs due to Covid-19. It was also the highest monthly reading since the BLS began tracking unemployment in 1948.

• 6.4%: Unemployment rate in January 2021, when Biden and Harris take office. It was the highest monthly figure of the Biden-Harris administration so far.

• 17.6%: Average hourly wages have increased since Biden took office, according to a CNBC analysis of BLS data. Biden claims that wage growth has outstripped inflation during his presidency, which is not true since prices have risen a cumulative 19.4%.

• 15.9 million: Jobs created under the Biden-Harris administration to date, according to BLS data.
• 2.7 million: The net number of jobs lost during the Trump administration is a figure largely attributable to the economic downturn caused by the pandemic.

• 6.7 million: Jobs added from when Trump took office in January 2017 to February 2020, before the pandemic squeezed the US labor market.

• $8.4 trillion: Estimated net total spending by the Trump administration. That figure represents the amount Trump has approved in total ten-year borrowing versus the amount he has approved in deficit reduction, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. If the Covid-19 stimulus and aid packages are excluded from the total, that number drops to $4.8 trillion.

• $4.3 trillion: Estimated net total spending during Biden’s first three years and five months in office, according to CRFB. Without Biden’s main pandemic stimulus package, the American Rescue Plan, the net total falls to $2.2 trillion.

• 39.1%: The percent increase in the U.S. national debt from Trump’s inauguration to Biden’s inauguration, according to a CNBC analysis of Congressional Research Service figures.

• 30.6%: The percent increase in the U.S. national debt from Biden’s inauguration to this month, according to CNBC’s analysis of Treasury data.

• 2.7%: Average annual growth rate of US gross domestic product from 2017 to 2019 in the first three years of Trump’s presidency, before the economic crisis caused by Covid-19, according to World Bank data. GDP measures the value of goods and services produced by the United States.

• 3.4%: Average annual US GDP growth rate from 2021 to 2023, the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration. That figure rose to a tepid 2021, fueled in part by a flurry of pandemic-era stimulus packages passed by both Trump and Biden.

• 12.3%: Average profitability S&P 500 The first three years of the Biden-Harris administration, from 2021 to 2023, according to figures from Berkshire Hathaway.

• 16.3%: Average return of the S&P 500 from 2017 to 2019, the first three years of the Trump White House.