inflation in the us has slowed from a 40year peak of 9 last year but prices are still rising rapidly and putting great stress on household budgets topping the list is rent the single biggest expense for people who don’t own homes putting food on the table caring for young children and owning a car have also become a lot more expensive see the accompanying table to view where inflation is hurting americans the most the cost of groceries isn’t rising as fast as it was last year but putting food on the table is much more expensive now compared to a few years ago the latest consumer price index due tuesday is likely to show a further slowdown in inflation yet the cost of many goods and services remains stubbornly high and isn’t coming down as fast as the federal reserve would like the fed will meet wednesday to weigh whether to raise interest rates for the 11th straight time since the spring of 2022 wall street widely expects the central bank will pause or skip a rate hike this month to see how much its prior increases are cooling off the economy the rate of inflation based on the cpi has decelerated to a yearly pace of 49 as of april the core rate that excludes food and energy has tapered off to 55 yearly pace from a peak of 66 last fall the bad news for the fed is that core inflation viewed as a more accurate predictor of future inflation trends has gotten stuck at an uncomfortably high level the core rate has been flat at 55 to 56 since the start of the year leaving it well above the central bank’s longrun target of 2 inflation