President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Friday with a bold statement: “Gasoline just broke $1.98 a Gallon.” While some local markets may be seeing lower prices, data from AAA on Saturday showed that the average cost of a gallon of unleaded gasoline nationwide was steady at $3.17. According to the agency, that’s a slight increase—two cents higher than the previous week.
In the same post, the President added an upbeat assessment of the economy: “groceries (and eggs!) down, energy down, mortgage rates down, employment strong, and much more good news, as Billions of Dollars pour in from Tariffs.”
However, ABC News cited several consumer pricing analysts who raised doubts about the accuracy of Trump’s claims. The network reported that grocery prices, in general, have not fallen and that national gas prices have mostly held steady rather than declined.
While the cost of many basic food items has climbed across the country, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics highlighted that certain items—such as rice, tomatoes, and potatoes—have seen price drops. Economist David Bieri of Virginia Tech explained to ABC, “Prices are still going up—they’re just not going up as rapidly.”
Understanding economic trends depends heavily on which statistics are examined. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ March Consumer Price Index report for “All Urban Consumers” showed that overall prices “decreased 0.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in March, after rising 0.2 percent in February.”
{Matzav.com}