By Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday spoke with the chief executives at Walmart Inc, United Parcel Service Inc, FedEx Corp and Target Corp to discuss speeding up deliveries and lowering prices for consumers, according to a White House official.
“During the conversations, President Biden received updates from these private-sector leaders on the efforts they’re taking to speed up throughput in our entire goods movement supply chain and discussed how shelves will be well-stocked this holiday season,” the official said, without providing extensive detail.
Biden, facing political pressure over rising U.S. prices, has been organizing an effort to clear transportation bottlenecks, ease semiconductor shortages and pass spending bills that officials hope will ease long-term inflation.
Concerns about labor and goods shortages have grown ahead of the U.S. holiday season, when travel and gift-buying normally help lift the economy.
Consumer prices rose 5.4% over the government fiscal year that ended in September, according to the Labor Department.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Jonathan Oatis)
