United States Inflation Rates Discussed
Contributor Since 2013
I am a freelance writer living and working on the internet from my home in Jamaica. I enjoy reading and writing. I am a active stockholder of well-known stocks in my country. Sometimes I buy international stocks as well but not many.
Summary
- Taking a closer look at where the United States inflation rate is heading.
- Taking a closer look at the present US economy.
- Why do so many people prefer living in the US more than other countries?
As we all know already, the United States of America is one of the leading countries in the world today and it has one of the best economies to prove it. Most people from other countries migrate there because they want better opportunities when it comes to working and earning for a living. Since most of us want a better future for us and our children, we would rather choose a thriving and stable economy. Which one of us would not want to live and work in a country that is developing fast and showing plenty progress? Of course we all would like to live in such a country and take advantage of the economic benefits it has to offer.
But first, let us discuss the main point. What exactly is the US CPI (Consumer Price Index) and Inflation Rates? They measure the per capita GDP of a standard of living in the country. The system is based on what consumers pay for a certain product in relation to what that same product was worth in previous years.
To put it simply, it examines the weighted average of the prices of goods and services such as food, transportation, medical equipments or such. This is the process in which they are calculated by taking into account price changes for every item in the determined goods and getting their averages.
These things are not really hard to understand as it has been going on for years, especially, I guess for the mothers who are actually in charge of the budgeting of her household’s every day expenses. This one is really a tough job I should say. They always have to be aware of their country’s Inflation rates. Yes, speaking of which, I guess we are now ready to move on to the next item that has to do with inflation rate.
What is inflation rate? As researched from a reliable source, “Inflation is the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services is rising and, consequently, the purchasing power of currency is falling. Central banks attempt to limit inflation, and avoid deflation, in order to keep the economy running smoothly.” I guess there is nothing more to discuss here since we all know what is going on in there so let us proceed to the main thing, for real.
The inflation rate is specifically based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI). When presented in graph or a table, they are presented both on a monthly basis, compared to the month before, as well as on a yearly basis, compared to the same month last year. Confusing right? Well, that part will have to be left for the experts to decide themselves. However, what is gathered is that in a monthly basis, from January 2017 the inflation rate was 0.31%. It went a little bit down and up again and between August-September 2017 it went up to 0.53%. The final outcome was that it from September to October 2017, it the reading was -0.06%. As per year, starting January 2017 it was 2.50% and in October 2017 it dropped by a slight margin to 2.04%. Those were the latest figures given.
To make the long story short, as we can see from the inputs, the United States in terms of their inflation rates are still going strong though some people say that the economy is not really doing that well. To be honest though, many people still prefer the U.S economy over other countries. However, people living in the country must decide whether the economy is growing or losing ground based on what they experience, see and read for themselves. Still, there are other countries that also boast strong economies where people can live and flourish in.