Does “inflation is coming down“ mean that a Big Mac meal is going to drop by $7, and a chicken burrito is going to drop $4?
I’m not a full-time professional economist, I just play one on TV.
But there’s this thing called compounding. It means the real $$ numbers are getting significantly worse, not better. When so-called “inflation is coming down“ to “only” 3.6%, compounding means that it’s 3.6% on top of the previous 19%.
Of course, as is always the case, particular commodities and goods and services will vary up-and-down as they always have — in addition to this thing called inflation. Supply chains, droughts, supply and demand, dock strikes, embargos, tariffs and trade wars, and many other things affect specific prices. That’s a different topic however.
Inflation isn’t really coming “down” — it’s just not compounding as fast. And that 19%, by design, doesn’t count everything it could.
