WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — Tuesday, the Labor Department reported inflation cooled to 4% in May, the lowest rate in more than two years.
“That’s good news for American families,” Council of Economic Advisers member Heather Boushey said.
Boushey says lower inflation helps working-class Americans.
“Families are both seeing, you know slightly lower prices,” Boushey said. “Prices are still too high. They’re coming down now, and in real wage gains.”
The smaller-than-expected rise in the consumer price index was driven by a decrease in the cost of products and services like energy and groceries.
“They’re going to the pump, they’re seeing a lower price…the egg prices are down nearly 30% since January,” Boushey said.
Economists and experts say the slowdown may give the federal reserve reason to skip an interest rate hike.
“We’re seeing kind of confirmation that April wasn’t just a one-off at least, with the May data,” Bank of America senior economist Stephen Juneau said.
Juneau says despite the positive report, the price of used vehicles and rent still went up.
“Which are increasing too aggressively and that’s a huge cost to consumer households and we need to see some easing pressures,” Juneau said.
Sen. John Thune says the economy is still not in a great spot and the administration needs to be honest with the American people.
“Inflation crisis the President helped create is costing American families $880 this month,” Thune said.
But economists say this isn’t a process the country can rush through and expect it to take nearly a year or more to reach the 2% goal.
