WASHINGTON — For recession-weary Americans
cutting back on household expenses, a new report on consumer prices offers a
few hints: Eat in, not out; buy produce, not meat; and think about buying a new
car instead of settling for that used jalopy.
Those examples of which costs are rising or
falling come from Wednesday's Labor Department report on the Consumer Price
Index, which showed 0.4 percent overall inflation — mostly on a 9.1 percent spike
in gasoline prices — from July to August. Consumer prices fell 1.5 percent for
the year that ended Aug. 31, less than historically steep 2.1 percent decline
for the year that ended July 31.
Excluding the volatile food and energy sectors,
so-called "core" prices rose only 0.1 percent in August and only 1.4
percent in the past year — the smallest increase since Feb. 2004.
But health care and education costs continued to
outpace inflation, as they have for years. President Barack Obama has cited
rising health care costs as a reason to overhaul the health care system.
The cost of medical care increased 3.3 percent
in the past year, the report said, as the price of hospital services jumped 6.5
percent.
While that's far higher than the 1.5 percent
drop in overall prices, health care costs have increased even more quickly in
the past. In 1990, they jumped at a 9 percent annual clip, and in 1982, they
climbed at an 11.6 percent rate. Overall inflation was much higher in those
years as well — 5.4 percent in 1990 and 6.2 percent in 1982.
Meanwhile, education costs, which include
tuition and child care, rose 5.4 percent in the past year. The price of
textbooks and supplies rose 6.8 percent.
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