(WXYZ) — Inflation is showing signs of slowing but that doesn’t mean the pain has stopped. New consumer price index numbers came out Thursday and there’s both good news and bad news. The cost of things like used cars and trucks, medical care, and clothing went down. The cost of things like energy and food rose.
The largest turkey drive in Detroit was held Thursday in the parking lot of Second Ebenezer Church on Dequindre. Joanna Ford was one of the lucky recipients.
“It does help out a lot. Less things I have to buy with the prices being high, especially gas,” admitted Ford.
Anthony Boyd was picking up supplies for members of his family. He reacted to the news prices in some areas of the economy could be coming down.
“Let’s hope it’s a good sign. As long as they continue to drop, that would be great. But if not, we’re probably going to need more lines like this,” said Boyd.
Julie Semma is vice president of the Detroit Towing Association, the main provider of the turkeys for the giveaway. She said they were giving away 1000 turkeys this year, but last year it was 2,000.
She explained how the cost had changed.
“It’s actually doubled in price, unfortunately. Everything has gone up. But we wanted to give back and here we are, doing what we got to do,” said Semma.
Economist Tim Nash, Senior Vice President Emeritus and Director of the McNair Center at Northwood University, weighed in on the Consumer Price Index numbers.
“Overall, inflation is moving in the right direction,” explained Nash
He said inflation was down half of a percent from 8.2 percent to 7.7 percent. This sounds good, but it’s still around the highest we’ve seen inflation in 40 years.
“A month does not make a trend. And we’re going to need to watch the next couple of months to see if inflation continues to decline,” said Nash.
He explained what’s happening when it comes to food prices.
“When you’re looking at overall food prices, for the month, food was down a little bit. But year over year, it’s up just a little over 7%,” Nash explained.
He says the cost of Thanksgiving is going up.
“The national price for turkey is up 70% from last year. So the ability to produce that Thanksgiving meal is going to be challenging this year,” Nash said.
