這場流行病正在動搖生活成本

這場流行病正在動搖生活成本

Grocery prices have fallen in recent months but are still 4.6% higher than at this time last year. Here, a woman stock shelves in a deli in June at a Washington, D.C., supermarket.

食品雜貨價格近幾個月有所下降，但仍比去年同期高出4.6%。圖中，一位女士六月在華盛頓特區(qū)的一家超市的熟食店里擺著貨架。

Gwen Mickens was startled by the prices in the butcher case during her last trip to the supermarket.

上次去超市時，格溫·米肯斯被肉鋪里的價格嚇了一跳。

"Short ribs are like twice as much as they used to be. And of course the bacon is more expensive as well," said Mickens, a Florida data analyst who was shopping for her husband and adult son. "You kind of close your eyes and just pick it up and throw it in the grocery cart."

“小排骨的價格是以前的兩倍。當(dāng)然，培根也更貴了，”米肯斯說，她是佛羅里達州的一名數(shù)據(jù)分析師，正在為她的丈夫和已成年的兒子購物。“你閉上眼睛，把它拿起來，扔進購物車。”

Her checkout receipt topped $250.

她的結(jié)賬收據(jù)超過了250美元。

Mickens' experience comes as no surprise to some economists. These analysts said that official inflation measures understate the toll that price hikes are taking on people's pocketbooks, because the pandemic has altered both what and how we buy.

米肯斯的經(jīng)歷對一些經(jīng)濟學(xué)家來說并不奇怪。這些分析人士說，官方的通脹措施低估了物價上漲對人們錢包的影響，因為流行病已經(jīng)改變了我們的購買什么和怎么購買。

Grocery prices rose sharply during the spring, and while they've come down somewhat in recent months, the price of food is still 4.6% higher than this time last year. And that's especially tough for low-income families who tend to spend more of their limited budgets on food.

春季食品價格大幅上漲，盡管最近幾個月有所回落，但食品價格仍比去年同期高出4.6%。這對低收入家庭來說尤其困難，因為他們往往把有限的預(yù)算中更多的錢花在食品上。

"During the pandemic, people are consuming a lot more food, particularly at home, and a lot less transportation and recreation goods," Harvard University economist Alberto Cavallo said. "When you take into account these changes in consumption patterns, it turns out inflation levels are significantly higher."

哈佛大學(xué)經(jīng)濟學(xué)家阿爾貝托·卡瓦洛說:“在流行病期間，人們消費更多的食物，尤其是在家里，而交通和娛樂用品卻少了很多。”“當(dāng)你考慮到消費模式的這些變化，結(jié)果是通貨膨脹水平要高得多。”

Data out on Friday showed consumer prices rose 0.4% in August compared with the previous month after a sharp drop early in the pandemic. But according to the Labor Department, overall inflation remains tepid, with prices up just 1.3% from a year ago.

上周五公布的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，8月份消費者價格指數(shù)(CPI)較上月上漲0.4%，此前在流行病爆發(fā)初期曾大幅下跌。但根據(jù)美國勞工部的數(shù)據(jù)，總體通脹仍不溫不火，物價同比僅上漲1.3%。

The Labor Department tracks inflation by comparing prices on a big basket of goods and services that consumers regularly buy. Prices go up or down each month, but the basket is updated only about once a year.

美國勞工部通過比較消費者經(jīng)常購買的一籃子商品和服務(wù)的價格來跟蹤通脹。價格每個月都會上漲或下跌，但籃子每年只更新一次。

Ordinarily, that's a good system, Cavallo said, because consumer shopping habits don't change that much. But during the pandemic, it can be misleading. Higher grocery prices have an outsize impact on people's wallets, because they're buying more groceries right now, while a drop in the price of air travel or movie tickets goes unnoticed because almost no one is buying those.

卡瓦洛說，通常來說，這是一個很好的系統(tǒng)，因為消費者的購物習(xí)慣不會改變太多。但在流行病期間，它可能會產(chǎn)生誤導(dǎo)。食品價格上漲對人們的錢包有著巨大的影響，因為他們現(xiàn)在購買的食品越來越多，而機票或電影票價格的下跌卻沒有引起人們的注意，因為幾乎沒有人購買這些東西。

The pandemic has also made it harder for people to hunt for bargains.

流行病也讓人們更難買到便宜貨。

"I used to go to two and sometimes three different stores in the course of a week," said Nancy Gaston, a semiretired resident of Vancouver, Wash.

“我過去常常在一周內(nèi)去兩家，有時三家不同的商店，”華盛頓州溫哥華市的半退休居民南希·加斯頓說。

Her grocery shopping is much more focused now.

她現(xiàn)在在雜貨店購物更加專心了。

"I just want to limit social contacts and so I go to one store a week, usually on Sunday morning because nobody else is there," she said.

她說:“我只是想限制社交往來，所以我每周只去一家商店，通常是在周日早上，因為那里沒有其他人。”

As a result, Gaston is paying more for groceries. But she is spending less on other things, including haircuts, manicures and gasoline.

結(jié)果，加斯頓在食品雜貨上花的錢更多了。但她在其他方面的花費減少了，包括理發(fā)、修指甲和汽油。

It hardly matters then that gasoline prices have fallen nearly 17% from a year ago.

在那個時候，汽油價格已經(jīng)比一年前下降了近17%，這一點也不重要。