MACON, Ga. — In 2022, the country saw high inflation, rising gas and food prices and so much more.
On Friday some of the state's top economist are getting together at Middle Georgia State University to release their prediction of what people in Macon and across Georgia can expect from the economy for the coming year.
Through the pandemic things were whirlwind, especially for business owners. Higher gas prices hit transport costs for goods, and food prices went up too, which trickled down to the menus at local restaurants.
The staff and Mike Seekins, owner of Famous Mikes in Macon, is not only happy to get your orders going into the first month of the year, but they're also happy to be in business.
"If you close down you don't make money and you lose money," Seekins said. "We raised our prices twice in the last year."
These are trends economist were seeing in 2022.
"We hit 9% inflation in mid 2022 and that's been slowly coming back down. We're in the high 7% now and we expect that to continue as well," Middle Georgia State University economist Greg George said.
George also says there was also a return to low unemployment rates, but a labor shortage also kicked in during 2022.
So what does that mean for 2023?
"People are calling for a mild recession and that's probably the best guess at this point. The economy is fine, things aren't horrible, but inflation is high and the fed is increasing interest rates and that tends to slow the economy," George said.
For you, that means higher interest rates on loans and credit cards, and your dollars still won't go quite as far. For business owners like Seekins he's focused on moving forward.
"I'm used to it. I've been doing this for a long time, prices go up and down," he said.