Finance

Here’s the deflation breakdown for September 2024 — in one chart

Published

8 months ago

October 11, 2024

Jeff Greenberg | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

Inflation has eased gradually across the broad U.S. economy — and some areas of consumer spending, like furniture and gasoline, have even deflated over the past year.

Deflation is when prices decline for goods and services.

It’s rare for prices to fall from their current levels across the economy at large, economists said.

However, prices for many physical goods have deflated as supply-and-demand dynamics return to normal following pandemic-era contortions.

“Outside of goods prices, I don’t think we’ll see price cuts,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s.

“[Businesses] will hold the line on price if demand is soft but outright price declines are very rare, and even in a recession are not common,” Zandi said.

Additionally, prices for energy and food commodities can be volatile, so it’s not unusual to see swings up and down. Consumer electronics also continually improve in quality, a dynamic that statisticians equate to deflation but which may only be apparent on paper and not at the store.

Which goods prices have deflated

Average prices for “core” goods — commodities that exclude food and energy — have deflated by about 1% since September 2023, according to the consumer price index.

Demand for physical goods soared in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Consumers were confined to their homes and couldn’t spend on things such as concerts, travel or dining out. Households also had more discretionary income, as they pulled back on spending and had more cash from federal aid.

The pandemic also snarled global supply chains, meaning goods weren’t hitting the shelves as quickly as consumers wanted them.

Such supply-and-demand dynamics drove up prices.

Now, those contortions have largely eased and prices have declined as a result, economists said.

For example, prices for household furnishings have fallen about 2% over the past 12 months, as have those for appliances (down 3%), tools and hardware (4%), women’s outerwear (6%) and sporting goods (2%), according to CPI data.

Vehicles have also “been one of the key areas of goods deflation,” said Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo Economics.

New and used vehicle prices have deflated by 1% and 5%, respectively, since September 2023.

It’s natural to see some “give back” in price since vehicles saw among the largest spikes when inflation began to pop in 2021, House said. In June 2021, for example, used car prices were up 45% from a year earlier.

Chicago Fed's Goolsbee: Inflation has come down and job market is around full employment level

The U.S. Federal Reserve also raised interest rates aggressively to combat high inflation, leading to pricier financing costs for car buyers. That served to weaken demand, which also pushed down prices, economists said. The Fed began an interest-rate-cutting cycle in September.

Outside of supply-demand dynamics, the U.S. dollar’s strength relative to other global currencies has also helped rein in prices for imported goods, economists said. This makes it less expensive for U.S. companies to import items from overseas, since the dollar can buy more.

Energy, food and consumer electronics

Outside of imported goods, consumers may also see a “normalization” of prices in food and energy, Zandi said. They’re influenced by “big swings in commodity prices, the value of currencies and trading relationships,” he said.

For example, regular unleaded gasoline prices have declined by about 16% since September 2023, according to CPI data.

Food prices are also generally underpinned by their own unique supply-and-demand dynamics. Categories like apples, potatoes, frozen vegetables and fresh fish and seafood have seen prices deflate by about 11%, 4%, 2% and 1%, respectively.

The quality of consumer electronics such as televisions, cellphones and computers also continually improves, meaning consumers generally get more for the same amount of money. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which compiles the monthly CPI report, equates that to a price decline in the inflation data.

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Business Finance News

Finance

Walmart taps own fintech firm for credit cards after Capital One exit

Published

2 hours ago

June 9, 2025

Business Finance News

A Capital One Walmart credit card sign is seen at a store in Mountain View, California, United States on Tuesday, November 19, 2019.

Yichuan Cao | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Walmart‘s majority-owned fintech startup OnePay said Monday it was launching a pair of new credit cards for customers of the world’s biggest retailer.

OnePay is partnering with Synchrony, a major behind-the-scenes player in retail cards, which will issue the cards and handle underwriting decisions starting in the fall, the companies said.

OnePay, which was created by Walmart in 2021 with venture firm Ribbit Capital, will handle the customer experience for the card program through its mobile app.

Walmart had leaned on Capital One as the exclusive provider of its credit cards since 2018, but sued the bank in 2023 so that it could exit the relationship years ahead of schedule. At the time, Capital One accused Walmart of seeking to end its partnership so that it could move transactions to OnePay.

The Walmart card program had 10 million customers and roughly $8.5 billion in loans outstanding last year, when the partnership with Capital One ended, according to Fitch Ratings.

For Walmart and its fintech firm, the arrangement shows that, in seeking to quickly scale up in financial services, OnePay is opting to partner with established players rather than going it alone.

In March, OnePay announced that it was tapping Swedish fintech firm Klarna to handle buy now, pay later loans at the retailer, even after testing its own installment loan program.

One-stop shop

In its quest to become a one-stop shop for Americans underserved by traditional banks, OnePay has methodically built out its offerings, which now include debit cards, high-yield savings accounts and a digital wallet with peer-to-peer payments.

OnePay is rolling out two options: a general-purpose credit card that can be used anywhere Mastercard is accepted and a store card that will only allow Walmart purchases.

Customers whose credit profiles don’t allow them to qualify for the general-purpose card will be offered the store card, according to a person with knowledge of the program.

OnePay didn’t yet disclose the rewards expected with the cards, though the general-purpose card is expected to provide a stronger value, said this person, who declined to be identified speaking ahead of the product’s release. The Synchrony partnership was reported earlier by Bloomberg.

“Our goal with this credit card program is to deliver an experience for consumers that’s transparent, rewarding, and easy to use,” OnePay CEO Omer Ismail said in the Monday release.

“We’re excited to be partnering with Synchrony to launch a program at Walmart that checks each of those boxes and will help serve millions of people,” Ismail said.