Except that inflation does not affect everything, or more accurately it affects everything differently. Inflation can be viewed as a change in supply /demand r

Except that inflation does not affect everything, or more accurately it affects everything differently. Inflation can be viewed as a change in supply /demand ratios. So car chips supply goes down, demand for cars is constant, price goes up. Lumber Mills closed during lockdown, supply of lumber constrained, demand goes up, price goes up. But the price of lumber, and cars, are not really linked. Yes, some commodities have knock-on effects - food and energy being prime examples - when oil goes up that tends to impact large areas of the economy because large areas have oil in their supply chain. So, whole average inflation is a useful benchmark number, it may, or may not, impact a companies future earnings, or more precisely, it may not impact earnings and costs in the same way.