The worst isn't over yet for prices

Oil prices have tumbled from the peak in the past several weeks. So have the prices of a wide range of commodities, including copper, steel and aluminum. What's more, food prices have begun to ease, leading many consumers to ask if the inflation cycle is coming to an end.

Not so fast, according to some economists. They contend that the rise in the prices of energy and food, for which the demand is the least elastic, signifies only the first stage of the inflationary cycle. The next stage would see a surge in the prices of a wide rage of manufactured products and services.

In China, the persistent increase in the production price is sending a troubling message that all is not well on the inflation front. Some major consumer product manufacturers and vendors, including Proctor & Gamble and Unilever of the US, have raised the prices of some of their products in the China market. Many other vendors, whose profit margins have already been stretched thin by rising costs of raw material, logistics and labor, are widely expected to follow suit.