food inflation
For the second year in a row, no overall increase in retail food prices
Thanks to the strong dollar, food inflation is standing still this year following the first instance, in 2016, of food deflation since the 1960s, says the USDA. In a new forecast, USDA economists say overall supermarket price levels in 2018 could be lower than they were in 2015.
Stable food prices mean holiday cookouts still less than $6 a head
For the third year in a row, Americans can put on a backyard barbecue for less than $6 a person, based on a survey of grocery prices across the country, says the largest U.S. farm group. To feed 10 people, the 14-item shopping list would cost $57.70, or about $5.70 a person, down marginally from last year.
Low-inflation years change U.S. average for grocery inflation
Since 2013, grocery prices have risen so slowly that the Agriculture Department has lowered its calculation of the "historical" inflation rate — the 20-year average — to 2.2 percent annually, down from 2.5 percent in 2016. USDA economists say 2017 is shaping up as another year of negligible price increases at the grocery story, now forecast at 0.5 percent.
Grocery prices to shrink by 1 percent in greatest decline since 1959
Recent declines in the retail price of beef, veal, poultry and eggs are contributing to a 1 percent drop in grocery prices this year, the largest instance of food deflation since 1959, said the Agriculture Department. Going into the final month of the year, grocery prices are running 1.2 percent below their 2015 level, thanks to the strong dollar and low petroleum prices.
U.S. heads for third year of below-normal food inflation
The strong dollar and low oil prices are slowing food price inflation to its lowest rate in six years, a barely noticeable 1.5 percent this year, says the Agriculture Department. And, looking ahead, USDA economists say 2017 will be the third year in a row that food inflation is far below normal.
Trump says it’s hard to bring down prices
President-elect Donald Trump, who recently told an interviewer, “I won on groceries,” said in a Time magazine transcript released on Thursday, “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up.” Meanwhile, a Purdue University poll found that consumers have lowered their expectations for food inflation.