Staff Reports
America just got a little breather from the inflation monster! The Consumer Price Index (CPI) in May climbed 3.3 percent compared to last year, which is a slight improvement from the 3.4 percent jump in April. The core index, which strips out those pesky food and energy prices to give us a clearer picture of the real deal, went up 3.4 percent last month, down from 3.6 percent in the previous month. Hey, every little bit counts, right?
When you look at the month-to-month change, consumer prices decided to take a chill pill and stayed the same overall. Now that’s what we call a subtle victory! Core prices crept up by 0.2 percent, showing us that not every price out there is going through the roof. Economists had their fingers crossed for a lower increase in prices, and boy, did they come close to hitting the nail on the head!
Inflation Cools More Than Expected, Providing Relief for Consumers and the Fed – Breitbart pic.twitter.com/s6i5tMApqW
— Ian Hansen 🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@IanHansenFeed) June 12, 2024
After scaring the pants off of investors and keeping the Federal Reserve on its toes, inflation decided to take a step back and catch its breath in April. This little breather is music to the ears of those who were starting to worry that we’d be shelling out a fortune for a loaf of bread soon.
President Biden’s spending spree with the American Rescue Plan seemed like a good idea at the time, but it left us with a bit of a financial hangover. “Bidenflation” has been throwing prices off balance, and folks aren’t too thrilled about it. Despite some good metrics in the job market and stock exchange, the everyday Joe isn’t feeling the economic love these days.
The Federal Reserve is playing it safe and keeping interest rates steady for now, but who knows what they’ll do next. With inflation taking a teensy step back, there’s hope that we won’t be forking over an arm and a leg for everything under the sun. Let’s keep our fingers crossed, folks!
