The latest inflation figures, covering the month of April, bear out what we were saying earlier this week about these numbers: Even as the some of the most visible items we purchase are rising in cost, others are declining, which is tamping down the overall inflation rate. Energy costs were up 2.2 percent in April, and gasoline up 3.3 percent, and if you multiply those numbers by 12, you see a horrific annual inflation rate.
But overall, April’s official increase in the consumer price index was just 0.4 percent, which is down slightly from March’s 0.5 percent. The bad news is that one of the balancing factors is a product that doesn’t even affect most of us: tobacco. The price of tobacco products fell by 0.4 percent for the month.
The silver lining is that commodities prices have begun to slip. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, the price of crude oil has dropped by 13 percent already in the month of May. Let’s hope we see the effects of that at the pump before too long.
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