Silver State Times

Nevada families are still making strategic decisions on what household items to buy despite the slight drop in inflation.

On Aug. 10, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for the 12 months ending July 2022. The data showed an 8.5% all items annual increase, which represents a 0.6% drop from last month. Some of the largest contributors were increases in the indexes for food, shelter and electricity.

"It’s a sign of how far and fast inflation has risen this year that an increase in prices of 8.5% in July on an annual basis triggered a market rally on Wednesday. That’s down from 9.1% a month ago, and the trend is in the right direction, but one month’s respite is far from the end of this punishing inflation bout," the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board said.

According to the BLS, real average hourly earnings for all employees decreased 3%, seasonally adjusted, from July 2021 to July 2022. The change in real average hourly earnings combined with a decrease of 0.6% in the average workweek resulted in a 3.6% decrease in real average weekly earnings over this period.

With the -3.6% wage inflation for July 2022, Nevada's average household income has seen a -$2,289 year-over-year loss, bringing the state's current average household income down to $61,299 a year.

President Biden took to Twitter last Wednesday, boasting about 0% inflation for July. However, the WSJ Editorial Board points out, "the slowdown came largely from volatile energy prices, which had soared in June." Additionally, prices across most of the rest of the economy continued their upward trend.

Food prices rose 1.1% in July and are up 10.9% over last year. Take-home grocery prices rose at an even faster rate at 1.3% for the month and 13.1% over the past 12 months. The index for shelter climbed 0.5% in the last month and 5.7% in the last year.