NORFOLK, Va. — There’s a new economic forecast for Hampton Roads.
An annual report was released Jan. 31 by Old Dominion University.
It's an opportunity to talk about a part of the economy many people are concerned with — grocery prices.
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For many, the price of groceries is not an easy burden to bear right now.
“They are pretty high," said shopper Joshua Werts.
Werts is one of those people. He's a student at ODU.
“I usually try to eat for myself because it’s just better that way, but I can’t really afford much of the organic foods that I want to," Werts explained. "My meals are usually heavy in vegetables, heavy in fruits. I usually prefer fruits because I’m a big oat meal guy, usually gotta stuff it in there.”
The newly-released economic forecast doesn't mention grocery prices, but ODU Economics Professor Vinod Agarwal said inflation is cooling and that could help prices.
“One of the issues has been that, after the pandemic, we had a very expansionary fiscal policy and managing policy. We saved millions of jobs actually, and obviously that has resulted in high inflation," said Agarwal. "(Inflation) is now less than 4% and all indications are it's going to keep on coming down."
Another bit of good news, he doesn’t expect any delays in the supply chain as a result of global events to have a big impact on prices.
“It may have a very limited impact, if any," said Agarwal.
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Shopper Chad Larson said grocery prices are making him think before he heads to the store.
“Kind of helps me determine which store I’m going to go into," said Larson. "But once I get in there, I kind of know what I need, so at that point it’s just, like, do the best you can to try to save some money," said Larson.
He said lower prices would be a big help.
“It would definitely help with monthly expenses," Larson explained. "I feel like I’d be eating out less and just going to the store more often and just eating from home."
