Crisis No More?
The next 2 weeks presents us with some of the most important pieces of economic news that will set the landscape for the rest of the year, and possibly 2023. The first one will be this Tuesday’s inflation report for August, but we might’ve received an informative preview courtesy of PriceStats, a piece of technology that tracks the CPI by consumer transactions across the country.
PriceStats is generally accurate in predicting how the CPI will move and their data gives us some positives and negatives. Overall, they saw a continued slowdown in inflation, which was a positive note. Gasoline prices have cratered in the month of August, with some states seeing the price per gallon fall below $3. Gas prices were one of the main things hurting consumers during 2022 and ironically also the fuel for inflation reaching multi-decade highs. Other positives include airfares declining slowly, although economists are attributing this to the transition from summer to fall and the slowdown of rent prices.
However, there are a good number of negatives that could pose trouble in the future. PriceStats said that food and healthcare prices are continuing to rise, which still places families in a budget problem. Analysts are saying food prices are showing no signs of slowing down, and low-income families have been forced to continue changing their spending habits in order to compensate. Although this isn’t the official inflation report, it gives us more to work with as the Fed heads into their decision next week.
I am not a financial advisor and my comments should never be taken as financial advice. Investments come with risk, so always do your research and analysis beforehand.
