This week inflation in the US hit a number not seen for 40 years, as prices rose on average 7% from December 2020 to December 2021.
Not all inflation is created equal
Within that overall measure there is of course a huge range of price changes. We've chosen some of the most important categories from the BLS data, plotting above the raw unadjusted inflation rates for each category.
At the top of the list is "getting around by car", with gasoline prices up almost 50% on this time last year, and used cars and trucks costing on average 37% more than this time in 2020. Utility costs are also up, with gas up 24% and electricity up 6%.
In the food department it's bad news for bodybuilders with proteins like meat, poultry, fish and eggs up on average 12%, and your weekly food shop likely to cost you 6.5% more this year. Eating out, or "food away from home" as the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts it, is also up 6%.
There is some good news if you're an accident-prone frequent flyer who drinks a lot of alcohol and milk — your main costs may not have gone up that much. Alcoholic beverages, dairy products, airline fares and medical care commodities have all seen only modest price rises of 1-2% in the last year.
