Americans are facing vastly different inflation rates depending on where they live in the U.S., with the latest data showing that consumers in the Northeast and Midwest are facing more inflation than their peers in the South and West.
The Labor Department on Wednesday released its inflation report for August which found that the consumer price index (CPI) – a broad measure of how much everyday goods like gasoline, groceries and rent cost – was up 2.5% from a year ago for the U.S. as a whole, continuing the trend of slowing inflation from recent months.
However, the pace of inflation is much faster in certain parts of the country than it is in other areas.
The Northeast saw 3.4% inflation in August compared to a year ago, the fastest of the four regions analyzed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and well above the national inflation rate. Within the region, the Middle Atlantic had 3.4% inflation, while New England fared slightly better at 3.3%.
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The Midwest region experienced 2.6% inflation, which was higher than the 2.3% reading in the South. Out West, inflation was 2.2% in August and came in higher for the Pacific region at 2.3% than the Mountain region with 2.0%.
The Labor Department’s report also looked at price growth in various cities and metropolitan areas around the country, where the trend of higher inflation in the Northeast and Midwest continued.
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Chicago had the highest inflation rate of all metro areas included in the BLS’ report for August, coming in at 3.8% – just ahead of the New York City area’s 3.7% inflation rate.
Detroit’s inflation rate was 3.5% in August, followed closely by Philadelphia at 3.4%, St. Louis at 3.3% and Baltimore at 3.0%.
Cities in the South saw relatively lower inflation rates in August, with Atlanta and Houston both at 1.7%, while inflation in the Miami metro area was slightly above the national rate at 2.6%.
Seattle had the highest inflation rate among cities in the West at 3.1% in August, while Los Angeles was at 2.9% and the San Francisco Bay Area was at 2.7%. The Phoenix metro area saw 2.3% inflation in August, while urban Alaska was at 1.5%.
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