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The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the government agency that collects data about the health of the U.S. economy, released the first measure of inflation in 2024, known as the Consumer Price Index.
负责收集美国经济健康数据的政府机构美国劳工统计局公布了2024年首个衡量通胀的指标——消费者价格指数。
Inflation is an increase in the price of goods and services.
通货膨胀是指商品和服务价格的上涨。
And during the pandemic, prices surged, reaching a high of 9.1% in June of 2022.
在疫情期间，美国物价飙升，于2022年6月达到9.1%的高点。
The Federal Reserve, the central bank of the U.S. that sets policy for banks and money, has been taking steps to make that rate go down. And it has on Tuesday.
为银行和货币制定政策的美国中央银行美联储一直在采取措施降低价格。美联储周二已经采取了相关措施。
The Consumer Price Index showed prices rose by 3.1% for the past 12 months, that ended in January.
消费者价格指数显示，在截至2024年1月份的过去12个月里，物价上涨了3.1%。
That increase was just 0.3% from December.
与去年12月相比，今年1月物价涨幅仅为0.3%。
Overall, that's a good thing. But it's not as good as analysts were hoping for.
总的来说，这是一件好事。但这并不像分析人士所希望的那样好。
Experts really wanted inflation to be under 3%.
专家们确实希望通胀率低于3%。
And the reason the numbers weren't as good as some had hoped is because of a few parts of the economy.
这些数字没有一些人希望的那么好的原因是因为经济中的几个方面。
In particular, food and housing. They continue to experience higher than normal inflation.
特别是食物和住房，它们继续经历高于正常水平的通胀。
On the other end of the spectrum, though, energy prices like gas went down significantly.
不过，另一方面，汽油等能源价格大幅下跌。
That's good news for those who need to fill up their gas station or heat their homes this winter.
对于那些今年冬天需要加满加油站或给家里取暖的人来说，这是个好消息。
So inflation, prices go up, but as much as everyone wishes for prices to just decrease back to pre-pandemic levels, it's actually not good for the economy if that happens.
通货膨胀、价格上涨。尽管每个人都希望价格能回落到疫情前的水平，但如果这种情况发生，实际上对经济并不利。
CNN business and politics correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich explains what deflation is and why we want to avoid it.
CNN商业与政治记者凡妮莎·尤尔凯维奇为我们解释什么是通货紧缩以及我们为什么要避免通货紧缩。
We hear you. We feel you. And we get it.
我们听到了，我们感受到了，我们也明白了。
Inflation sucks, and Americans are paying the price literally.
通货膨胀糟透了，美国人真的正在为此付出代价。
Rents have been falling, but it's still the biggest share of what we pay every single month.
租金一直在下降，但租金仍是我们每个月支出的最大份额。
It's where we feel higher prices the most.
这是我们最能感受到价格上涨的地方。
But the U.S. economy has somehow pulled off a miracle, low unemployment, rising wages, plentiful jobs with falling inflation without a recession.
但美国经济以某种方式创造了一个奇迹：低失业率，工资上涨，大量就业机会，通胀下降，没有出现衰退。
But many of you still feel like things are too expensive and they still are.
但你们中的许多人仍然觉得东西太贵了，物价仍然很高。
Here's the thing, as much as it would be great to see prices drop, we're never going to pay 2019 prices again. Pandemic or not.
事情是这样的，尽管看到价格下降是件好事，但我们再也不会支付2019年的价格了。不管有没有疫情，回不到过去的价格了。
That would be something called deflation. When prices fall, sounds great, right? Wrong.
这就是所谓的通货紧缩。当价格下降时，听起来很不错，对吧? 实则不然。
Deflation is something we don't want to see.
通货紧缩是我们不希望看到的情况。
When there's deflation, it means there's less demand, which could lead to things like layoffs, high unemployment and falling incomes.
通货紧缩意味着需求减少，这可能导致裁员、高失业率和收入下降等问题。
That's what happened in the Great Depression.
这就是经济大萧条时期会发生的情况。
The Federal Reserve is doing everything in its power not to let that happen.
美联储正在尽其所能阻止这种情况发生。
