WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Bureau of Labor Statistics released new data Thursday showing the inflation rate is up from August, hitting 8.2% year over year.
This comes after Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, announced earlier this week that the U.S. could tip into recession within the next six to nine months.
He and some of our country's top financial institutions share the same opinion.
"Next year, we're expected to have a pretty strong recession," Kathy Stevens, who lives in West Palm Beach, said.
Consumers, like Stevens, are wondering what that will mean for their finances.
"I'm afraid to look at my Charles Schwab account because I don't know what's going on there," Stevens said.
Carl Gould, with the financial firm 7 Stage Advisors, told WPTV that before the U.S. tips into recession, the Consumer Price Index has to come way down.
"A technical recession is when you have two quarters in a row of negative growth," Gould said.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Thursday morning, high food, rent and medical care prices sent the consumer price index for September up by 0.4% compared to 0.1% in August.
"Prices, because they're so high, people are slowing their purchases. The average income in America is $70,000, so a 10% inflation rate means $7,000 of their family's wealth is gone," Gould said.
Gould said as the holiday season approaches, spending will pick up and once it drops back down again, that's when a recession will likely come.
He said consumers just need to be prepared, but it's not all bad news.
"In a recession, that's a great time to start purchasing assets, hiring people, doing projects," Gould said. "Deals are better during recessionary times. So, since we know it's coming, we can prepare for it."
