Maybe the reduction is in your area alone. Where I stay, things are not getting better. Things seem to get worse. Yesterday, a boy was caught trying to steal a pot of soup. When he was caught and asked why he intended to do such, he responded that he hadn't eaten any meaningful thing in the past two weeks because he couldn't afford anything. He survives by eating Paw-Paw and since there are no ripe Paw-Paw he has no choice but to steal.
The truth is that there is no justification for stealing. If he had succeeded, he would have caused pain to the owner of the soup in his bid to survive. We can see more ugly situations in the country and one of the reasons is the high cost of things.