NPR.

This is the Indicator from Planet Money, I'm Darien Woods.

And I'm Whalen Wong.

The new inflation numbers are out today and they provided some relief.

The Consumer Price Index was up 5% on the year.

That's the lowest level in two years.

The prices for some things like food and airlines are still high.

And we know that a lot of the inflation that we've been seeing is businesses raising their

prices because their own costs have gone up for commodities like lumber or chicken.

But some of those costs have come down from their pandemic peaks.

So should we expect businesses to also pass on that price relief?

We pose this question to economist Isabel Avieber at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

It is I think very clear that firms are determined to keep prices where they are.

Generally lowering of prices doesn't seem to be part of the playbook at this point.

Alright so it goes closed.

Let's go home, Whalen.

Let's roll the credits.

You're ready for a cocktail, Darien.

This is the shortest indicator ever.

Not so fast.

Isabel has studies what happens with prices when there are big shifts in an economy.

And she says the pandemic years reveal a lot about how corporations make pricing decisions.

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