The latest reports show that the job market is making positive gains and “core inflation” — overall inflation minus the more volatile prices of food and energy — is even at a two-year low, but Americans still aren’t seeing any real relief.
“Annual inflation has fallen by around two-thirds since last summer, and inflation outside of food and energy has fallen to its lowest level in any three-month period since September 2021,” the White House said in a statement.
Indeed, President Joe Biden and his surrogates have been touting the “success” of the administration’s economic policies — dubbed “Bidenomics” — at every possible opportunity, but polling still suggests that the American people don’t believe Biden has been good for the economy.
A recent CNN poll revealed that just 41% approve of Biden’s performance overall — and only 37% approve of his handling of the economy specifically.
According to a new CNN poll, only 37% of Americans approve of Biden’s record on the economy!pic.twitter.com/4qFaI9dsEQ
— GOP (@GOP) August 6, 2023
The reason, according to a new report published Thursday by POLITICO, appears to be the difference between core inflation and overall inflation — the latter of which is slightly up at 3.2% in July.
That reflects the fact that, despite Biden’s claims that his economy is working, Americans are still paying much higher prices for the things they actually have to buy — namely the food and energy costs that don’t factor into core inflation calculations.
The result is that Americans are paying approximately 17% more at grocery stores and restaurants since February of 2020 — and despite the fact that gas prices have come down since reaching record highs — people are still paying quite a bit more at the pump than they did before Biden took office.
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“Most of what people spend their money on continues to go up in price, perhaps explaining why consumers aren’t as optimistic as economists about the recent disinflationary data,” Omair Sharif of Inflation Insights said in a research note prior to the most recent report’s release.