美国劳工统计局(Bureau of Labor Statistics)周三公布的调查结果显示，尽管住房和食品价格上涨，但7月份的通胀率保持稳定。

劳工统计局发布了消费者物价指数(CPI ),用来说明通货膨胀每月的变化。尽管汽油价格下降了7.7%，但这种通缩被食品和住房价格的上涨所抵消，导致7月份城市消费者的总体CPI没有变化。

这对于消费者来说是一个受欢迎的信号，因为自那以后，他们每个月都会经历通货膨胀2020年十月。但该报告明确指出，消费者将感受到巨大差异的主要地方是在加油站。自6月份以来，主要住宅的租金上涨了0.7%，食品价格上涨了1%以上，自去年同期以来上涨了10.9%。

鸡蛋的价格比去年上涨了38%，是所有食品中涨幅最大的。人造黄油、面粉和黄油都紧随其后。伊利诺伊州芝加哥市的杂货店和像Aya Pastry这样的小企业都感受到了这种增长。

厨师兼小企业主Aya Fukai告诉美国广播公司新闻说:“你能想到的每一种配料的价格都变了。”

Fukai向ABC新闻提供了她糕点公司Aya Pastry去年的产品成本。富凯的黄油经销商在过去的一年里增加了79%的成本。非食品项目也大幅增加。用于保持厨房卫生的手套增加了128%。Aya Pastry的所有送货都使用天然气，他们已经感受到飞涨的能源价格影响了他们的成本。

应对通货膨胀的企业必须在几个弊端中选择较轻的一个:减少利润、提高价格或削减成本。许多科技企业通过选择最后一个选项而成为头条新闻解雇。Aya Pastry选择降低利润率，将部分成本转嫁给消费者，饼干和其他商品的价格上涨了22%。

Fukai说:“起初，肯定有顾客想知道为什么所有东西都贵了这么多。”“这只是因为我们所有的东西都更贵了。”

尽管食品和住房价格持续上涨，但许多专家，如高级经济学家、w . e . up John Institute for Employment Research的研究副主任布拉德·赫什拜因(Brad Hershbein)都“持谨慎乐观态度”。

“这份报告符合——如果不是比预期稍好的话——在给ABC新闻的电子邮件中写道。

圣路易斯美联储费尔南多·马丁的助理副总裁兼经济学家再次强调，在即将发布的CPI报告中，能源成本的降低将体现在食品价格等其他领域。

“我认为你应该期待看到全面影响的延迟，”马丁在谈到能源成本下降时告诉美国广播公司新闻。马丁仍然担心未来几个月的租金和其他服务费用。

随着美联储继续通过提高利率市场、企业和消费者可以从最新的数据中得到一些安慰。

“仍有很多地方可能出错，”赫什本说。“但它还没有出错，这比许多人担心的要好。”

July inflation holds steady as food and shelter costs rise

Inflation in July held steady even as the costs of housing and food rose, according to findings by the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Wednesday.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released theConsumer Price Index(CPI) which serves as an illustration of how inflation changes each month. Despite gasoline prices falling by 7.7%, this deflation was offset by inflation in food and shelter, resulting in no change in the overall CPI of urban consumers through July.

This comes as a welcome sign to consumers who have experienced an inflation gain every month sinceOctober 2020. But the report made clear that the main place consumers will feel a big difference is at the gas pump. Rent of primary residences rose by 0.7% since June and food increased by over a percent and is now up 10.9% since this time last year.

The cost of eggs have risen by 38% year over year - the most among all goods in the food category. Margarine, flour, and butter have all followed close behind. These increases have been felt throughout grocery stores and in small businesses like Aya Pastry in Chicago, Illinois.

“Every single ingredient that you could literally think of has changed in price,” Chef and small business owner Aya Fukai told ABC News.

Fukai provided ABC News with the product costs for her pastry business, Aya Pastry, from the past year. Fukai's butter distributor increased costs by 79% in the past year. Non-food items have also increased substantially. Gloves used to maintain a sanitary kitchen have increased by 128%. Aya Pastry also uses gas for all their deliveries and have felt the skyrocketing energy prices impacting their costs.

Businesses dealing with inflation must choose between a lesser of several evils: reduce margins, increase prices, or cut costs. Many businesses in tech have made headlines by choosing the last option throughlayoffs. Aya Pastry opted to slim their margins and pass some of the costs on to the consumer with a 22% increase in their biscuits and other goods.

“At first, there were definitely [customers] wondering why everything was so much more expensive,” Fukai said. “It’s only because everything to us is more expensive."

Despite the continued increases in food and shelter, many experts like senior economist and deputy director of research at W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research Brad Hershbein are “cautiously optimistic.”

“This report was in line—if not slightly better—than expectations,” Hershbein wrote in an email to ABC News.

Assistant vice president and economist at the St. Louis Federal Reserve Fernando Martin reinforced the hope that the reduction in energy costs will be in other areas like food prices in coming CPI reports.

“I think you should expect a delay in seeing the full impact,” Martin told ABC News in reference to the decrease in energy costs. Martin remains concerned about the cost of rent and other services in the coming months.

As The Federal Reserve continues to fight inflation byraising interest rates, the markets, businesses, and consumers can take some comfort from the latest figures.

“There’s a lot that could still go wrong,” Hershbein said. “But it hasn’t gone wrong yet, and that’s better than a lot of people had feared.”