By Staff Reporter |
Inflation cooled for the Phoenix metro area last month, and expenditures went up.
The Common Sense Institute (CSI) reported that Phoenix metro’s Consumer Price Index rose 2.8% year-over-year in June, a slight reduction from a 3% reading in April. Energy prices dropped by more than 6% in a single month, attributed to easing tensions with Iran.
CSI noted that Arizona’s growth rate was slower than the rest of the nation. Arizona’s home prices have also cooled while home prices climb nationally.
Over the past seven years, prices have increased in the Phoenix metro area by more than 33%. The typical household pays nearly $1,700 more a month on average for its regular expenditures than they did in the last year before the pandemic hit: around $5,200 to nearly $6,900. CSI estimated that the average Phoenix metro household would have been paying just $600 more compared to 2019 if inflation had followed a steady 2% increase rate these past seven years.
From the national perspective, the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) reported that headline personal consumption expenditure price index inflation rose to nearly 4% from June 2025 to last month. The Federal Reserve’s target for that metric is 2%. Core personal consumption expenditure price index inflation was reported to be nearing 3.3%.
Services inflation rose by 0.13% and goods inflation dropped by 0.63%.
Real personal consumption expenditures increased by $68 billion, or 0.4%. Real personal consumption expenditures on all services increased by $28 billion, or 0.26%, and real personal consumption expenditures on all goods increased by $42 billion, or 0.73%.
The JEC reported that the nominal personal savings rate declined by 0.1% to 2.7%. Headline personal income increased by $55 billion, or 0.2%, and real disposable income per capita increased by nearly 0.3%.
U.S. News & World Report ranked Arizona fourth for economy in its latest Best States annual report for 2026. This marked the highest ranking achieved by the state this past year among all scorecard metrics. The state ranked high for business environment, seventh; growth, seventh; and employment, 17th.
Arizona also ranked 33rd for fiscal stability and 42nd for opportunity: 28th for economic opportunity, 32nd for equality, 35th for affordability, 30th for long-term fiscal stability, and 33rd for short term fiscal stability.
All metric rankings tallied, Arizona came in 34th overall.
Elsewhere, Arizona ranked 21st for healthcare, 23rd for infrastructure, 29th for crime and corrections, 41st for natural environment, and 43rd for education.
The Arizona Commerce Authority issued a new report this month indicating that Arizona is exceeding its goals for the 2026 fiscal year: more than 26,000 potential new jobs added (131% of goal), nearly $110 billion in capital expenditures (2,749% of goal), and more than $81,000 in wages (137% of goal).
Yet, Arizona’s unemployment rate has been outpacing job growth. The state was one of seven states to experience an increase in unemployment, and its rate recently hit a high of 4.9%, numbers not seen since the pandemic. Labor force participation also fell to a total nearing a 10-year low.
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