Inflation begins to show signs of slowing as grocery prices continue to climb

Inflation may be easing. The price you pay for goods and services went up 8.5% in July.
That’s less than economists predicted, indicating inflation is declining.

New data on Wednesday shows the numbers are a stark contrast to June, which saw a 40-year high topping 9%.

With inflation slowing down, there’s a glimmer of hope when it comes to the checkout line.

We walked through the grocery aisles to zero in on prices here in Southwest Florida.

Groceries in July went up more than 13 percent compared to a year before.

FGCU economist Victor Claar Ph.D. says even though inflation didn’t increase as much as in June, groceries and rent are still trending up.

“It doesn’t mean that we’ve undone all the consecutive months of inflation we’ve had,” Claar explained. “And families, unless they’ve gotten raises during the last year are losing ground.”

For example, take the prices of the items we’ve tracked for more than a year at the same Publix, Target, and Walmart in Southwest Florida.

Since last month, the Publix cart costs about $11.50 more.

The biggest offender was an 18-count carton of eggs, sucking about $6.50 from your wallet, up 50 cents from July.

At Target, the cart went up $2.

Honey Nut Cheerios added 80 cents to the basket at $3.79 a box.

And lastly, the basket at Walmart went up 5 cents this month.

But a 12-pack of Coke costs 30 cents extra. It’s not much, but it hurts.

Although there are signs inflation is slowing, it is still high. And the federal reserve is expected to raise interest rates again next month to taper those high prices.