We complain, but spend anyway, from Marketplace. I'm Sabrie Ben ashore,

in for David Brancaccio.

January's retail sales figures, how much we're all buying, come out in about an hour and a half. The funny thing is so far we

shoppers complain about high shop prices, I do, and yet we keep buying. So one question is whether that

trend continued in January.

Marketplace is Nancy Marshall Gensler is here to talk about that and more.

Good morning, Nancy.

Good morning, Sabree.

So you go to a store.

It's obvious why consumers are upset.

The consumer price index came out earlier this week and was higher than expected.

What does that mean for the Federal Reserve's fight against inflation?

Well, Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said many times that inflation is not going to

slow down at a nice even pace. Of course, Sabree, the Fed is keeping interest rates

high to cool the economy and tamped down inflation. Yesterday Chicago Fed President

Austin Goolsby said we shouldn't get flipped out, his words, over one higher

than expected inflation reading. He says inflation is still progressing toward the Fed's 2% target

and Tuesday's unexpectedly high

CPI reading does not mean the Fed will rule out

an interest rate cut later this year.

So when we get back down to that target, does that mean prices go back to normal?

It depends what you mean by normal, Sabri, and Golsby made it clear the Fed isn't trying to get prices back down to where they were before the pandemic.

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