Inflation may have slowed last year, but it continued to deal heavy blows — some devastating — on Americans’ livelihoods: Nearly two-thirds of US adults were worse off because of it, and roughly 1 in 6 couldn’t pay all their monthly bills, new Federal Reserve data shows.
The Fed on Tuesday released its Economic Well-Being of US Households report for 2023, examining the financial lives of US adults and their families. The report found that 72% of adults surveyed said they were “doing okay” financially. That’s a tick lower than last year but well below the high of 78% hit in 2021 (and still above the record low of 62% in 2013).
Inflation made the financial lives “worse” for 65% of US households, according to the report. Among those, 19% said it was “much worse.”
The findings were drawn from the Fed’s 11th annual Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking, which looks at American’s economic health across a variety of areas, including employment, income, banking and credit, housing, retirement planning, student loans, childcare and even Buy Now, Pay Later usage.
Skipping meals, medical care
That was especially true in 2022, when US inflation hit 9.1%, its highest annual rate in more than 40 years. As of last month, annual inflation was 3.4%, according to the Consumer Price Index.
This was especially true for lower-income adults, who reported higher instances of not having enough to eat, not being able to cover bills in full and skipping medical care.
Overall, 17% of adults reported they could not pay all their bills in full in the month prior to the survey, which was conducted in October 2023.
Obey
Article URL : https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/21/economy/economic-wellbeing-2023-inflation/index.html?utm_source=business_ribbon