The average American family spends $72 more per month on food due to inflation, with experts predicting a recession in 2023.
- American families continue to struggle to meet the rising cost of living as inflation continues to squeeze household budgets
- The latest CPI report showed inflation has slowed considerably since the summer, when the figure was capped at 9.1 percent.
- Despite slowing inflation, a group of experts polled by the WSJ say the probability of a recession in 2023 is more than 60 percent.
As inflation continues to eat into the budgets of American families, a December report from Moody’s Analytics found that families are spending about $72 more per month on food than they did a year ago.
That figure comes from a report that said the typical US household spent $371 more on goods and services than it did a year ago.
That figure is down from when inflation peaked in June, when households spent $502 more than a year ago, but still worries about Americans’ ability to keep tabs on their bills.
According to the report, the average American spends more than $82 a month on shelter and $72.01 on food.
Inflation slowed to 6.5 percent in the final month of 2022 – its slowest rise since October 2021

American families pay $72 more on their monthly grocery bills than they did a year ago
Americans spent 11.8 percent more on groceries than a year ago, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics said last Thursday.
Some household items, such as eggs, have risen in price up to 60 percent in the past year. The eye-popping egg surge is due to a supply shortage caused by some kind of unexpected bad bird flu season.
Utilities are also up more than $47, as is entertainment, which is up $15.27.
One bright spot in the report was gas prices, which have fallen by $1.55 a month since the start of the outrageous spikes overseen by the Biden administration last winter into spring.
The report also shows that wages are rising faster now than a few months ago. Inflation has also decreased.
While consumer prices in December still rose 6.5 percent from a year earlier, the figure was the lowest CPI reading since October 2021. It was 7.1 percent in November and peaked at 9.1 percent in summer.
“The U.S. economy made significant progress in the final months of the year in its fight against elevated inflation,” Moody’s economist Matt Colyar said in a report released Thursday.
President Joe Biden talked last Thursday about falling inflation.
In his brief speech, he said, “While inflation is high in the world’s major economies, it is falling month by month in America, giving families real breathing space.”
Despite the president’s sunny stance on the economy. Experts continue to predict that the US economy will enter a full recession in 2023.

The price of eggs has risen by 60 percent on average across the country since last year

Although wage growth is starting to catch up with inflation, food prices continue to hit US households hard, according to the latest BLS report.
In a new report, business and academic economists polled by the WSJ put the probability of a recession in 2023 at 61 percent. A small change from the 63 percent who said the same in October 2022.
Deutsche Bank economists Brett Ryan and Matthew Luzzetti said, “While recent inflation figures show some progress, several durable categories such as basic services are associated with a historically tight labor market, suggesting there is still a ‘long way to go.'” Fed.’
“The Fed will remain on a tightening trajectory to restore labor market balance and price stability, which we believe will lead to a sharp increase in unemployment and recession,” they said.
Economists remain concerned about the Federal Reserve’s continued efforts to tame inflation as the top risk to the US economy in 2023, according to the survey.
A quarter of the 71 economists surveyed said the housing market would be the most difficult to cool down, while 18 percent were in the personal services camp saying it would be the most difficult to adjust inflation.
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