
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 13, 1991                   TAG: 9104130250
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

YOUR COST OF LIVING MAY RISE SLOWER

The cost of living has risen 5.7 percent in the past year, but if you avoid things with rapidly rising prices - such as tobacco and airline tickets - don't need medical care and shop the sales for apparel and groceries, your own cost of living is rising at a considerably slower rate.

Just about all big-ticket items - cars, houses, furniture, electronics - are on sale these days. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that some elements of its consumer price index are falling. Some examples of items that are costing less include: eggs, down 2.8 percent; interstate telephone calls, down 2.9 percent; VCRs, down 8.6 percent .

Why isn't the index itself declining? Blame the stuff whose prices constantly defy gravity: health care, personal services such as haircuts and dry cleaning, entertainment, transit fares and utility bills. For the year ahead, the news looks better. The official inflation rate in 1991 should run about 3.5 percent.

by CNB