For the first time in a year, inflation rates are up according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Prices rose 3.2 percent from July 2022 marking an end in the steady decline of inflation rates in the past 12 months. In the short term, inflation rose 0.2 percent from June to July of this year.
Economists, however, are not worried as they attribute the rise to a rebound in energy and food prices. These spikes in prices are not expected to ruin the inflation progress the U.S. has made over the past year. Economists also expected it to be higher as prices are compared to those of July a year ago, the first month when inflation began to fall.
According to the latest data, food prices rose 4.9 percent with food prices out of the household rising 7.1 percent. Other sectors like transportation, shelter and new vehicles were also all up. While things like fuel and energy prices are up from June, they have taken a drastic decrease from their prices last year.
Despite this, the New York-Newark-Jersey City Metropolitan area is handling the rise in inflation better than the national metrics. The area has the same overall inflation rate as the whole country but specific sectors are less worse off than nationally.
Food prices are only up 3.5 percent and out of household food is only up 6.5 percent in the area while fuel and gas prices are down 21.2 percent from last year. The entire Northeast region of the country is also better off than the national average in the latest report with the region having a 2.6 percent rise in inflation.
In the past year, the Federal Reserve has been increasing interest rates in hopes of controlling inflation rates. It has raised interest rates 11 times in the last year causing the housing market to cool down. Despite the uncertainty around inflation other economic metrics such as unemployment, wages and spending are all leading to a strong economy.
