KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) – WATE 6 On Your Side News spoke with the Director of the Boyd Center for Business & Economic Research at the University of Tennessee about ways people can keep record high inflation from impacting their wallet.

Inflation seems to be creeping up higher every day. On Wednesday, U.S. government officials announced inflation hit a new four-decade peak in June.

“We have to understand the CPI is a measure of lots of prices all together, lots of markets, happening in real time,” said Donald Bruce, a Randy and Jenny Boyd Distinguished Professor of Economics for UT. “We would love to think that one person has all the power to just change price levels, but that’s just not the way it works.”

Consumer prices soared 9.1% compared with a year earlier, the government said, the biggest 12-month increase since 1981, and up from an 8.6% jump in May. On a monthly basis, prices rose 1.3% from May to June, another substantial increase, after prices had jumped 1% from April to May.

“We’re already starting to see some signs of improvement. For example, gas prices are starting to come down,” Bruce said.

Bruce spoke about why inflation continues to soar, how long the high prices can last, and what households can do to save during these tough times.

“We will certainly see some improvement before the end of this year but it may be 12 to 18 months before we’re really getting close to that target inflation rate of 2 percent,” Bruce said.