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Inflation
Inflation Numbers Due Out on Dec. 13 May Not Show Any Improvement
The Nov. CPI numbers depend on how fast inflation is decelerating
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is set to release the CPI inflation index numbers in a little over a week on Dec. 13 for November 2022. The reality is that they may not really show much improvement for most Americans, despite the fact that prices have tempered their gains in the past several months.
This can be seen in the chart below that I have prepared.
It shows that in June the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (the CPI-U index) peaked at 9.1% on a year-over-year (YoY) basis. Since then the CPI-U index has slid down to 7.7% YoY as of October.
But here is the point, the CPI-U index started the year at 7.5%. So even though the November index might possibly show a further decline from the 7.7% rate in October, it is not likely to be far below the 7.5% rate in January 2022.
That essentially means that inflation has gone nowhere during 2022. It is high and not really any better than it was at the beginning of the year.
