Inflation has been creeping down nationally for several months now.
But when you talk about inflation, it’s important to provide context.
“The inflation rate in San Diego is 6.4%, and that’s what it is nationally. So we’re kind of on par with the country at large," said Miro Copic, a professor of marketing at San Diego State University.
That’s down from its peak of 8.3% in May of 2022.
Here’s how things break down, inflation-wise, from January of 2022 to January of this year in San Diego.
The price of food has been especially volatile — cereal and bakery goods up 18.4%, dairy up 22%, fruits and vegetables are up 4.8%, but poultry, fish and eggs are down by 0.8%.
Housing costs are off their peak highs, but still up 10% over last year.
Medical care rose 4.4%. Fuel prices, though it might not seem like it, are down for all grades of gas.
But the price of natural gas has not been following the cost of fuel.
“Especially in the months of December and January, natural gas costs were up 146%, and that’s not only because they were two very cold months compared to averages in San Diego — there were pipelines that were down and not able to deliver natural gas," Copic said.
The natural gas situation is now improving. The idle pipelines are coming back on line and the price of natural gas is falling.
But, overall, inflation may seem worse for San Diegans because everything here was more expensive before prices started shooting up.
“You’re starting at more for a gallon of gas," Copic said. "Our rent, our monthly rent, is much higher than different parts of the country.”
But costs here are also affected by things happening thousands of miles away.
“The grain markets are in turmoil because of the Ukraine-Russia conflict. Russia was the world’s largest exporter of wheat and Ukraine also exported a lot of grain," said Alan Gin, a professor of economics at the University of San Diego .
Both Copic and Gin said what happens next with inflation would be heavily influenced by the Federal Reserve Bank, which will make a decision on interest rates in March.
