>>... he asked if I really believed that inflation was only 3.1%.
If you think about it, when they talk about 'interest rate' it's based on a 'basket' of goods and services. Each of us has our own basket. So that person might be consuming things that have gone up more than that. For instance, I make a lot of pesto in the fall (from basil and garlic I grow); the prices of both good virgin olive oil and non-Chinese (so both Italian and Siberian) pine nuts have skyrocketed. Hard to complain as they're still available.