now that the oil prices are down in america,,,
By 060157
@060157 (1059)
Pakistan
November 26, 2008 1:36pm CST
this question is for the americans... is the inflation rate in america related to the oil prices at all? and now that the oil prices have reduced drastically, are the things cheaper now?
here in my country, the price of everything went sky high because of the oil price in the international market, and the local market. the price of each and everything had risen up because of increasing oil prices but now that the barrel costs only $48, only gas prices have been adjusted and the rest of the items not only remain at their high price, some of them are even getting more expensive.
what is the situation there?
2 responses
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
26 Nov 08
Once oil prices decrease ti takes a long time for prices of other goods to drop. The companies have to make back anything they lost before they decide to drop their prices. Personally, I see things staying the same cost or even going up a bit (like with my pet food)
1 person likes this
@Aussies2007 (5336)
• Australia
27 Nov 08
I am in Australia...
But yes... oil prices do impact on inflation.
Prices usually take longer to come down than to go up.
No doubt that there are always a few people profitering by keeping the price up for as long as possible.
While the price of food should come down at the same time that the price of oil...
This might not be true for everything.
Those items which remain unsold for several weeks... were delivered when the price of oil was still high... and the price won't come down until they are replaced with a new delivery.
But the reason for prices going up... or not going down are varied.
Some companies will use the opportunity to increase the price of their product when the price of oil comes down... in order to raise their profit.
Some companies might have taken a loss because of the rise in oil prices... and are using the opportunity to recover their losses now.
