You want Table 1 in the linked doc. The summary is the things getting more expensive fastest are also things that have lower weighting. In household budget terms, our biggest expenses by far are:
- housing
- health insurance
- childcare
Those have not gotten much more expensive (our health insurance got cheaper this year, housing is flat, childcare had a modest increase). Meanwhile gas for the vehicles costs much more, but comparatively fuel is a minor expense. When we weigh everything for our household, 7.5% seems high.
I think your household may not track with many others. Not disagreeing with your personal number as I am sure they are accurate but for most they are very different.
Housing is sky rocketing across the US. Rents are up over 30% in a lot of markets. Child care is basically free for most people after their kids start elementary school. Groceries are far more expensive than they used to be, I am going to estimate at least 20%. For me a very rough estimate of inflation is probably 15%. Luckily I have a 30 year fixed on my mortgage, if i was renting it would be far more. Rents in my city are up 25% last year and expected to increase a further 20% this year.
> I'm struggling to understand how inflation is only 7.5% when every major line item comprising inflation is up much more than 7.5% over the past year.
They aren't. Food, apparel, medical care commodities, and non-energy services are up less than the overall amount. The things that are up more just get mentioned more because big numbers are newsworthy, small numbers aren't.
Where are you seeing that? Here's the latest CPI [1]. Click "show table" for the full info. Food is at 7%, housing at 4.4%, clothing at 5.3%, etc. I don't have the 2022 weights for each category handy, but here's 2020 [2].
CPI is taken using an average family's basket of goods. If you have different consumption patterns from the average family your effective inflation may differ.
runako|4 years ago
- housing
- health insurance
- childcare
Those have not gotten much more expensive (our health insurance got cheaper this year, housing is flat, childcare had a modest increase). Meanwhile gas for the vehicles costs much more, but comparatively fuel is a minor expense. When we weigh everything for our household, 7.5% seems high.
wonderwonder|4 years ago
tenuousemphasis|4 years ago
dragonwriter|4 years ago
They aren't. Food, apparel, medical care commodities, and non-energy services are up less than the overall amount. The things that are up more just get mentioned more because big numbers are newsworthy, small numbers aren't.
mdorazio|4 years ago
[1] https://www.bls.gov/charts/consumer-price-index/consumer-pri...
[2] https://www.bls.gov/cpi/tables/relative-importance/2020.htm
colinmhayes|4 years ago
beerandt|4 years ago