The CEO's of both Costco and Walmart talked at length this year about how they have been able to hold the line on prices. Although Costco did hike their membership fee $5.
With this COLA, the cost of living increases which are compounded on top of one another (just like the inflation rate is) over the past four years are: 5.9%, 8.7%, 3.2% and 2.5%. The average is about 5.1% per year.
I personally don't think it's that far off based on my own expenditures. However, I didn't have to pay higher interest rates on a mortgage, or high credit card rates, higher rent, and I didn't buy a car since 2017...so there are some expensive markets I am just not in. I don't think that that anyone is cooking the books, though.
|