Growing signs that price pressures are easing suggest the distressing 9.1% rise in consumer prices is likely to peak. But even if inflation falls, economists see a slow pace of decline.
Ed Hyman, president of Evercore ISI, pointed to many indicators that 9.1% may have been the peak. Gasoline prices have fallen about 10% from their mid-June peak of $5.02 a gallon, according to AAA. Wheat futures prices are down 37% since mid-May and corn futures are down 27% since mid-June. The cost of shipping goods from East Asia to the U.S. West Coast is 11.4 percent lower than a month ago, according to Xeneta, a Norway-based transportation procurement and data company.