Posted on 08/10/22
| News Source: Pikesville Patch
Inflation is slowing down, led largely by tumbling gasoline prices, but residents of Maryland will continue to feel pain at grocery stores and other places, according to the July Consumer Price Index report released Wednesday.
Consumer prices jumped 8.5 percent in July, compared with a year earlier, but that was down from the 9.1 percent year-over-year increase in June, a four-decade high, according to the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Supply chain snarls are also loosening, with fewer ships moored off Southern California ports and shipping costs declining. Prices for commodities like corn, wheat and copper have fallen steeply.
Maryland residents paid an average of $3.98 per gallon of gas Wednesday, compared with $4.63 a month ago, according to AAA, but those decreases aren't enough to offset spiking prices across a wide range of goods and services.
On average, Americans paid 13.1 percent more for groceries in July than they did in the year prior, the largest 12-month increase since the one-year period ending in March 1979. Cereals and bakery products cost 15 percent more than they did at this time last year, dairy and related products cost 14.9 percent more, fruits and vegetables cost about 9.3 percent more.