One economist says the state of grocery prices is leaving him in “shock” despite knowing a thing or two about inflation.
Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard University economics professor and former IMF chief economist, admitted to being shocked at the cost of groceries while discussing the Federal Reserve’s next steps in their inflation fight during an appearance on “Mornings with Maria” on Wednesday.
“I mean, I’m a professional. I understand the difference between the level of prices and inflation. It’s just something we haven’t seen in a long time,” he stressed.
Rogoff went on to mention that “prices aren’t going to go down” and that, even though inflation is falling, prices are continuing to go up.
“I think that’s very hard to digest,” he said.
Despite inflation falling to the lowest level in more than three years in July, consumers are still falling victim to a rise in food and energy prices, according to the CPI report released on Wednesday.
Rogoff responded to the CPI news, arguing that it wasn’t a big surprise.
“It [CPI report] doesn’t move the needle. You know, as far as the Fed, I think it’s very clear they wish they’d cut in July,” the economist said.
“I don’t think there’s any question about where they’re going in September, but I also think there’s a lot of disagreement within the Fed about where they’re going,” he continued.
Rogoff joins other Wall Street economists in their predictions about the Fed cutting interest rates in September as recession fears resurface following the global market selloff and weak July jobs report.
Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, said that “while we do not think conditions are ripe for the Fed to make an emergency rate cut, the case for a supersized 50 basis point reduction at its next meeting has been bolstered by the recent market turmoil.”
Rogoff suggested that the Fed has to “accept” that they’re not getting inflation down to 2% any time soon without a recession.
“Clearly the balance of risk is the chances of a recession, that you really care about, are a lot higher than the chances of inflation going to 4%,” he told host Maria Bartiromo.
FOX Business’ Megan Henney contributed to this report.
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