Inflation is a measure of the reduction in purchasing power, the price changes measured in inflation not only affects consumers but also affects businesses investments. The inflation rate for the United States amounted to 5% in April 2023. This value for the inflation rate is a negligible 0.03 percentile point reduction from the previous month of March 2023, a deceleration to the reduction in the inflation rate that has been occurring consecutively for the last seven months. With the Federal Reserve indicating in March that they are not interested in continuing to increase interest rates to combat inflation, inflation was expected to slow down its reduction and this could be said to be demonstrated with April’s inflation rate.
By the major components of the Consumer Price Index, in April 2023 the Food & Beverages component experienced the highest level of inflation (7.5%), followed very closely by Housing that experienced inflation rates of 7.4% for the month. Additionally, two categories experienced values within 1 percentile point from the desired inflation rate of 2%, these were Education & Communication with 1.5% inflation and Medical Care that maintained a 1.1% inflation rate. The Transportation category also experienced almost no increase in prices and the lowest level of inflation in April with a 0.3% inflation rate.
