North Pima News

Not since the early years of the Reagan administration has the country experienced a drastic year-over-year increase in inflation, with last month’s 7.5% hike something the Labor Department hasn’t witnessed since 1982, and Arizona residents feeling the squeeze in their wallets. 

According to a Bloomberg report, inflation is likely to continue to exceed the Federal Reserve’s goal rate as Americans try to keep pace with increasing prices. The consumer price index, initially projected to average 4.6%, is likely to average 5% for the rest of 2022, according to Bloomberg’s survey of 76 economists conducted earlier this month.

“We expect inflation to get worse before it improves, peaking at around 7.8% in next month’s report,” Bloomberg economists Anna Wong and Andrew Husby noted, according to the Bloomberg report.

An Arizona PBS report noted that the Grand Canyon State isn’t immune to the economic malaise, with grocery costs and living expenses on the rise. The report also noted that the supply chain and ongoing labor shortages may be responsible for some increases, according to experts cited. One report cited by Arizona PBS has found that the cost of eating at home is increasing more quickly than the cost of eating at a restaurant. Moreover, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), consumer price index summary found that meats, poultry, fish and eggs increased by 12.5% during the last year. According to CNBC, the consumer price index measures inflation by measuring the cost of a wide array of common consumer products. 

“The meats are very high,” Dennis Hoffman, director of the L. William Seidman Research Institute at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, told Arizona PBS. “Some of the basic commodities. The determinants there are weird things like transportation, packaging. You know, obviously, demand of these products is up.”

According to the Associated Press, prices are increasing for other goods and services, including energy, autos and housing, with the report noting that in January alone rent increased by half a percent, while the cost of electricity jumped by 4.2% and the price of a used car increased by 1.5%. Hoffman told Arizona PBS that part of the problem is the way the U.S. handled the pandemic. 

“We didn’t get people connected to their employers like Europe did,” Hoffman told the news outlet. “We fired everybody. Laid them off all, then they go to the government and collect.”

The Associated Press also noted that several consumer-oriented businesses, including popular brands like Chipotle and Starbucks, have had to raise prices by about 105 to make up for rising overhead brought on by increases in labor and product costs. 

The BLS report also summarized the consumer price index, finding that food prices alone increased by 6.3%, while the energy index skyrocketed by 29.3%. 

According to a McLaughlin & Associates poll, 2022 is witnessing an increased concern about the economy among Americans, compared to a year ago, with 31% of voters citing the economy as their greatest worry, up from 25% of Americans one year ago expressing concern about economic issues.