这场流行病正在动摇生活成本

这场流行病正在动摇生活成本

Grocery prices have fallen in recent months but are still 4.6% higher than at this time last year. Here, a woman stock shelves in a deli in June at a Washington, D.C., supermarket.

食品杂货价格近几个月有所下降，但仍比去年同期高出4.6%。图中，一位女士六月在华盛顿特区的一家超市的熟食店里摆着货架。

Gwen Mickens was startled by the prices in the butcher case during her last trip to the supermarket.

上次去超市时，格温·米肯斯被肉铺里的价格吓了一跳。

"Short ribs are like twice as much as they used to be. And of course the bacon is more expensive as well," said Mickens, a Florida data analyst who was shopping for her husband and adult son. "You kind of close your eyes and just pick it up and throw it in the grocery cart."

“小排骨的价格是以前的两倍。当然，培根也更贵了，”米肯斯说，她是佛罗里达州的一名数据分析师，正在为她的丈夫和已成年的儿子购物。“你闭上眼睛，把它拿起来，扔进购物车。”

Her checkout receipt topped $250.

她的结账收据超过了250美元。

Mickens' experience comes as no surprise to some economists. These analysts said that official inflation measures understate the toll that price hikes are taking on people's pocketbooks, because the pandemic has altered both what and how we buy.

米肯斯的经历对一些经济学家来说并不奇怪。这些分析人士说，官方的通胀措施低估了物价上涨对人们钱包的影响，因为流行病已经改变了我们的购买什么和怎么购买。

Grocery prices rose sharply during the spring, and while they've come down somewhat in recent months, the price of food is still 4.6% higher than this time last year. And that's especially tough for low-income families who tend to spend more of their limited budgets on food.

春季食品价格大幅上涨，尽管最近几个月有所回落，但食品价格仍比去年同期高出4.6%。这对低收入家庭来说尤其困难，因为他们往往把有限的预算中更多的钱花在食品上。

"During the pandemic, people are consuming a lot more food, particularly at home, and a lot less transportation and recreation goods," Harvard University economist Alberto Cavallo said. "When you take into account these changes in consumption patterns, it turns out inflation levels are significantly higher."

哈佛大学经济学家阿尔贝托·卡瓦洛说:“在流行病期间，人们消费更多的食物，尤其是在家里，而交通和娱乐用品却少了很多。”“当你考虑到消费模式的这些变化，结果是通货膨胀水平要高得多。”

Data out on Friday showed consumer prices rose 0.4% in August compared with the previous month after a sharp drop early in the pandemic. But according to the Labor Department, overall inflation remains tepid, with prices up just 1.3% from a year ago.

上周五公布的数据显示，8月份消费者价格指数(CPI)较上月上涨0.4%，此前在流行病爆发初期曾大幅下跌。但根据美国劳工部的数据，总体通胀仍不温不火，物价同比仅上涨1.3%。

The Labor Department tracks inflation by comparing prices on a big basket of goods and services that consumers regularly buy. Prices go up or down each month, but the basket is updated only about once a year.

美国劳工部通过比较消费者经常购买的一篮子商品和服务的价格来跟踪通胀。价格每个月都会上涨或下跌，但篮子每年只更新一次。

Ordinarily, that's a good system, Cavallo said, because consumer shopping habits don't change that much. But during the pandemic, it can be misleading. Higher grocery prices have an outsize impact on people's wallets, because they're buying more groceries right now, while a drop in the price of air travel or movie tickets goes unnoticed because almost no one is buying those.

卡瓦洛说，通常来说，这是一个很好的系统，因为消费者的购物习惯不会改变太多。但在流行病期间，它可能会产生误导。食品价格上涨对人们的钱包有着巨大的影响，因为他们现在购买的食品越来越多，而机票或电影票价格的下跌却没有引起人们的注意，因为几乎没有人购买这些东西。

The pandemic has also made it harder for people to hunt for bargains.

流行病也让人们更难买到便宜货。

"I used to go to two and sometimes three different stores in the course of a week," said Nancy Gaston, a semiretired resident of Vancouver, Wash.

“我过去常常在一周内去两家，有时三家不同的商店，”华盛顿州温哥华市的半退休居民南希·加斯顿说。

Her grocery shopping is much more focused now.

她现在在杂货店购物更加专心了。

"I just want to limit social contacts and so I go to one store a week, usually on Sunday morning because nobody else is there," she said.

她说:“我只是想限制社交往来，所以我每周只去一家商店，通常是在周日早上，因为那里没有其他人。”

As a result, Gaston is paying more for groceries. But she is spending less on other things, including haircuts, manicures and gasoline.

结果，加斯顿在食品杂货上花的钱更多了。但她在其他方面的花费减少了，包括理发、修指甲和汽油。

It hardly matters then that gasoline prices have fallen nearly 17% from a year ago.

在那个时候，汽油价格已经比一年前下降了近17%，这一点也不重要。