In 2022, Americans, especially those of us in Florida are dealing with sky-high inflation. The gauge hit a 40-year high earlier this year. Though inflation has started to slow slightly due to factors like the Federal Reserve rate hikes, the year-over-year inflation rate was still a whopping 7.7% in October. This high inflation is driven by a variety of factors. This includes the continued effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, the war in Ukraine and even labor shortages. The government is hoping to continue to rein in inflation with additional aggressive interest rate hikes this year. Exactly how much of an effect that will have remains to be seen.
Inflation is rising more quickly in some places than others, though. In order to determine the cities where inflation is rising the most – and thus is the biggest problem – WalletHub compared 22 major MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) across two key metrics related to the Consumer Price Index. The CPI measures inflation. We compared the Consumer Price Index for the latest month for which BLS data is available to two months prior and one year prior. This will give us a snapshot of how inflation has changed in the short and long term. We’ll also show how inflation in Florida cities stack up against other parts of the U.S.