After news that inflation has risen to a 40-year high, President Joe Biden told NBC Nightly News' Lester Holt to that inflation will "taper off" by the end of 2022.

“According to Nobel Laureates, 14 of them that contacted me, and a number of corporate leaders, it ought to be able to start to taper off as we go through this year,” Biden told Holt.

Inflation is now costing people in the U.S. an average of $275 more per month than last year, Moody's Analytics estimated. Last July, the President said that inflation would be temporary.

“I think a lot of Americans are wondering what your definition of temporary is,” Holt told Biden.

In response, Biden called Holt a “wise guy.” The timeline of rising U.S. inflation is not as transitory as Biden would have hoped.

“I understand, that's your job,” Biden clarified to Holt.

Data from the Consumer Price Index showed that inflation rose by 7.5% year-to-year for January 2022, the highest rate of increase since 1982. Food, housing, and electricity are being most affected by inflation. Biden was quick to pivot to the supply chain crisis as the thing to blame for inflation.

“The reason for inflation is because the supply chains were cut off, meaning that the products,” rose in price and there were fewer of them, Biden said during the interview.

Biden's approval ratings are the lowest since he took office, with 58% of responders to a CNN poll saying they disapprove of Biden's handling of his job as president. Twenty-one percent of respondents were disappointed with Biden's handling of the economy, with 3% of respondents pointing specifically to their concerns about inflation.

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