WASHINGTON (TNND) -- The pace of consumer inflation increased slightly in July, but not as much as some economists feared, as the national debt hit a new high and surpassed $37 trillion.

There was a big, national sigh of relief because the numbers were really good," Steve Moore, who is President Donald Trump's former White House economic advisor, said Wednesday during a one-on-one interview with The National News Desk's Jan Jeffcoat.

You know, we're seeing inflation continue to tick down," he added. "People are still concerned about the price of groceries and the price of utility bills and so on, but the price increases are nothing like what we saw under Biden."

Moore said the U.S. is seeing about a 2.5% inflation rate right now. He noted that while it's "a little higher than what we want, it's "much better" than the last four years.

"A lot of people thought that the tariffs that Trump has imposed would filter into higher prices," he said. "[There are] not a lot of signs on that yet. Now, I do think at some point if you impose tariffs some of that will be borne by the final consumer, but at least so far we've got inflation in a safe zone."