Inflation measure falls to nearly five-year low, but consumers still frustrated by high prices

Описание: (15 Feb 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Flowood, Mississippi - 13 February 2026
1. Lamarcus Willis pumps gas into his van
2. Close on pump
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Lamarcus Willis, consumer:
"It's ridiculous. It's an arm and a leg, dealing with food costs, traveling expenses, you know if you have a family with you, mortgage bills, etcetera. To me, I feel like it should go down more."
4. Sign displaying gas price       
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Lamarcus Willis, consumer:
"It's kind of steep right now, with rent, mortgage, car notes, unexpected bills, you know, who knows. And on top of having to afford more for gas and then more on food, it's kind of denting the pocket."
6. Mack Davis pumps gas into his vehicle

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Columbus, Ohio - 13 February 2026
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Ben Ayres, senior economist, Nationwide Economics:
"The biggest piece of news was the consumer price index where we got the data for January and it came in softer than expected."

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Flowood, Mississippi - 13 February 2026
8. Hand pulls card out of gas machine

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Columbus, Ohio - 13 February 2026
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Ben Ayres, senior economist, Nationwide Economics:
"We've been seeing inflation has been cooling for really over the past six months or so and so this is just a continuation of that trend. You know i think the biggest surprise is still not seeing a whole lot on the tariff front and expecting that we were going to see more price increases for goods tied to tariffs thinking maybe that was just delayed."

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Flowood, Mississippi - 13 February 2026
10. Hand on gas nozzle

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Columbus, Ohio - 13 February 2026
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Ben Ayres, senior economist, Nationwide Economics:
"I think the biggest reason is that most of the companies that would be affected by tariffs on goods and imports are absorbing the cost. They're saying we don't want to pass along that onto the consumer. We're worried about losing our market share."

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Flowood, Mississippi - 13 February 2026
12. Gas price on pump

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Columbus, Ohio - 13 February 2026
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Ben Ayres, senior economist, Nationwide Economics:
"People really want to see prices go down and what we're really talking about are prices not going up as much as they have before. And that's the big part of the affordability discussion is that people really want to go back to where prices were several years ago and the reality is we're probably not going to see that ."

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Montgomery County, Pennsylvania – 13 February 2026
14. Shoppers with carts in parking lot
15. SOUNDBITE (English), Charles Fleming Jr., 80-year-old retiree:
“Not another rich person telling them that the prices are coming down. Because that's a big joke. Because it's definitely not coming down. It's steady going up. Everything is harder."
16. Various of gas station
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Taylor Symes, editor of TheCityFix online blog:
“I do feel like prices are coming down slowly. For me, as an almost 30 year old, rental prices, I think, are most important to me right now and they have stabilized.”
18. Shopper pushing cart outside store
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Emily Ramirez, college student:
“This is true for everyone my age. It's so hard to make. We're living paycheck to paycheck. It's so hard to be able to afford things. Rent definitely has not stabilized. It's gone up especially in this area."
20. Shopper putting groceries in car
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