The reason people find the 'zero inflation' headlines misleading are mainly for three reasons:
1) Aggregate month-to-month inflation metrics were flat/low due to gas prices falling, but many important categories were still quickly inflating. Notably rent, but also food.
2) The reason people normally reference 12 month inflation windows is because many things, like energy prices, are very volatile month to month. It is going to take time to really see the trends.
3) For things that skyrocketed like food, people are hoping to actually see the prices come back down.
So, yeah, you are correct on your numbers, clearly. But as an non-expert, I'm not really sure the current trends are positive. I think they are still pretty troubling.
1) Aggregate month-to-month inflation metrics were flat/low due to gas prices falling, but many important categories were still quickly inflating. Notably rent, but also food.
2) The reason people normally reference 12 month inflation windows is because many things, like energy prices, are very volatile month to month. It is going to take time to really see the trends.
3) For things that skyrocketed like food, people are hoping to actually see the prices come back down.
So, yeah, you are correct on your numbers, clearly. But as an non-expert, I'm not really sure the current trends are positive. I think they are still pretty troubling.