The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the Consumer Price Index declined 0.8 percent in April, mostly thanks to an oil glut that has caused an 18 percent drop in energy prices:
Economists typically prefer to look at the core inflation rate, which excludes food and energy because they’re too susceptible to outside forces that have nothing to do with actual inflationary pressures (bad harvests, oil embargoes, etc.). The core inflation rate in April ran at 1.4 percent.
That said, ordinary people should pay attention to the headline inflation rate because that’s what affects their actual daily lives. And while this is, I admit, a pretty small bit of good news in the middle of a global pandemic that’s being mismanaged in horrific proportions, it is a tiny bit of good news. These days, I’ll take what I can get.
