How credit unions can help members battle inflation
The prospect of an economic recession in the United States persists in this summer of 2022. While fuel prices have progressively – and with great relief – dropped in the last two months, consumers continue to get squeezed out of their budgets at the grocery store and beyond due to inflation.
After all, inflation jumped 8.4 percent in July, and while that figure is down from the previous month, it’s still close to a 40-year-high, necessitating cost-cutting and saving more important than ever. According to a recent report from PYMTS and Yahoo! citing 2,633 U.S. consumers, 64 percent of Americans were living paycheck-to-paycheck as of January 2022. That statistic was up from 52 percent in April 2021, and slightly higher than the previous month.
It’s not a coincidence that these individuals and families are punished first, last, and hardest when rapid inflation hits and consumers have to start making difficult – nigh unwinnable – choices. As reported by Biz New Orleans, Louisiana residents are even more likely to be struggling during this inflationary period. Sporting the second-highest poverty rate in the country at 18.5 percent, neighborhoods, communities, and municipalities around the state are trying to find ways to lessen the financial burden on families and households.
Even food banks around the state, like the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank, have seen food lines extend further than normal. The challenge is that the food banks themselves are experiencing their own economic challenges. Local consumer goods locations cannot contribute to the food bank like they could before due to obvious supply shortages that have affected nearly every consumer industry. Add on to that, traditional bulk food purchasing processes are less ample and more costly due to higher demands.
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