Guidant Financial Group Blog

So, apparently consumer prices rose only slightly in April … when you take out food and gas. According to an AP article in The New York Times (see Price Data Suggests Slowdown is Cooling Inflation), the consumer price index rose a modest 0.2% last month.

Food prices, however, have experienced the largest increase in 18 years. The 0.2% increase is slightly lower than the 0.3% increase in March; however, we expect consumers haven’t noticed much of a change.

As the article points out, wages have not kept up with the increase in prices. Average weekly earnings for non-supervisory positions actually dropped 1 percent in April, compared to the same month last year.

We don’t know about you, but with gas prices tickling $4/gallon for regular, and food prices gaining almost a full percent since last month, we are starting to feel the crunch!