Inflation eased modestly in April — but price gains are still running at 40-year highs and spreading across the economy.
Higher prices had become a kind of badge of honor in the historically promotional
industry, with players toward the upper end of the market — from Ralph Lauren to Chanel — telegraphing their brand power with bigger price tags.Others, like Walmart, pride themselves on their power to fight inflation, using their scale and influence to deliver discounts to consumers, and that has clearly helped keep prices below the broader rate of inflation in apparel.
The Federal Reserve itself began fighting inflation in earnest this year with two increases to its benchmark interest rate totaling a 0.75 percent bump up. But another percentage point of rate hikes are expected this year and many fear the Fed waited too long to cool down an economy that was mixed up by the pandemic and overheating.
There are signs of adjustment in consumer spending online, but the process is just beginning and no one is quite sure just how rough the ride down will be. “As the cost of borrowing and economic uncertainty rises for consumers, we are beginning to see the early impact on both online inflation and spend,” said Patrick Brown, vice president of growth marketing and insights at Adobe. The web tracker found that online prices rose 2.9 percent from a year ago in April and were down 0.5 percent compared with March. Where Inflation Bites Hardest
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