Bird flu the cause of high egg prices, says USDA
Egg prices at the grocery store were elevated throughout 2022 due to outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) among egg-laying hens, said USDA economists. “Lower-than-usual shell egg inventories near the end of the year, combined with increased demand stemming from the holiday baking season, resulted in several successive weeks of record-high egg prices."
Food price inflation slows, though prices still high
The food inflation rate declined in November for the third month in a row to its lowest level since June, said the Labor Department on Tuesday. Despite the improvement, food prices are 10.6 percent higher than they were a year ago, according to the Consumer Price Index report.
Grocery prices rise 11.9 percent in a year, worst increase since 1979
Led by meat, grocery prices are rising rapidly, up 11.9 percent in the past 12 months — even faster than the overall U.S. inflation rate of 8.6 percent, said the government in the Consumer Price Index report. "We're going to live with this inflation for a while," said President Biden over the weekend, despite administration efforts to reduce prices.
Grocery prices up 10.8 percent even as overall inflation rate declines
Although the U.S. inflation rate slowed to 8.3 percent for the year ending in April, food continues to cost more and more, said the Labor Department on Wednesday. Grocery prices shot up 10.8 percent in the past year, driven by higher prices for such foods as bacon, up 17.7 percent, chicken, up 16.4 percent, and eggs, up 22.6 percent.
Largest grocery price increase since 2008
Grocery prices will rise by an average of 5.5 percent this year, the highest inflation rate at the supermarket since 2008, said the Agriculture Department on Monday. The forecast was an abrupt 2 percentage point increase from last month and was spurred by three months of rapid rises in the prices of many foods.
USDA says food inflation rate to soar, highest since 2008
Prices for common elements of the U.S. diet, from poultry and dairy to fruits and vegetables, are rising at double or triple their usual rate, said the government in forecasting the highest annual food inflation rate in 14 years. The Agriculture Department said food prices would rise an average of 5 percent this year, an abrupt two-point increase from its forecast a month ago.
Food prices rise at fastest pace in 41 years
The food inflation rate is up for the ninth month in a row and now matches the U.S. inflation rate of 7.9 percent a year, with double-digit increases in the price of meat, milk, and fresh fruit, said the government on Thursday. Prices for groceries rose even faster, 8.6 percent, than the overall food index, which includes food sold at restaurants, fast-food outlets, and company cafeterias.
Thanksgiving dinner will cost more. But how much?
Americans can cook the classic Thanksgiving meal featuring roast turkey and pumpkin pie for $5.33 a person, according to an informal survey of supermarket prices. But while all sides agree that ingredients for the meal will cost more this year, there is a wide range of viewpoints on how large the increase will be.
Highest grocery price inflation in nine years
Grocery prices rose by 3.5 percent during 2020, the largest increase since prices rose 4.8 percent in 2011, said the USDA on Monday. Beef led the parade of pandemic price increases, up by 9.6 percent for the year, followed by pork, up 6.3 percent, and poultry, up by 5.6 percent. “Only the price …
Grocery prices fall for second month in a row
Lower prices for meat, poultry, fish and eggs were the driving factor for a slight decline in grocery prices during August, the second month in a row that supermarket prices were down, said the monthly Consumer Price Index. Despite the decreases, food inflation ran at 4.6 percent in the past 12 months, rising far more rapidly than the overall U.S. rate of 1.3 percent.
Grocery prices surge for fourth straight month, pushed by meat
Beef prices in the grocery store are 14.2 percent higher than a year ago, part of a broad rise in prices for "food at home," said the Labor Department on Wednesday. While it was the fourth month in a row of surging grocery prices, there were signs that food inflation is easing.
Food prices forecast to decline to longterm average in 2021
Grocery prices will rise a modest 1.5 percent in 2021, close to the long-term average and half of the larger-than-usual increase expected this year, said the USDA in its first forecast of food inflation in the new year.
Beef fuels biggest increase in grocery prices in nearly a decade
Grocery prices climbed by 5.6 percent, their largest 12-month increase since December 2011, although the U.S. inflation rate is a mild 0.6 percent, said the Labor Department on Tuesday. Beef prices skyrocketed by 25 percent, with most of the increase in the past three months when coronavirus …
Grocery price inflation is becoming less volatile
The United States is headed for the fifth year in a row of lower-than-average increases in grocery prices, part of a longer trend of smaller and less volatile changes in food inflation, said two USDA economists.
Grocery prices stand still, tamping down food inflation
Retail food prices are living up to USDA's four-month-old forecast of tepid food inflation, with a barely preceptable increase of 1 percent. In its monthly Food Price Outlook, the USDA said the inflation outlook held steady for all categories of food except for dairy products, which declined to 0.5 percent for the year.
The food tab for a spring picnic is up 2 percent
Americans will pay about $1 more than a year ago if they plan a spring picnic that includes sandwiches, potato salad, orange juice, and shredded cheese, according to an informal survey of grocery store prices in 23 states.
Food inflation forecast lowered
U.S. food prices will rise a scant 1.5 percent this year, continuing a three-year run of below-normal food inflation rates, said a USDA forecast, pointing to grocery store prices that are at a near standstill.
U.S. sees first two-year streak of food deflation since 1950s
Grocery prices are down for the second year in a row, the first multi-year run of food deflation since the mid-1950s. In its monthly Food Price Outlook, the USDA credits the strong dollar for the year-on-year decline in grocery prices of 1.3 percent in 2016 and 0.2 percent in 2017; only the seventh and eighth years, respectively, of deflation since World War II.
Lowest cost in four years for traditional Thanksgiving dinner
A spot check of grocery prices in 39 states found that the ingredients for a traditional Thanksgiving meal will cost 1.5-percent less than last year, and, at $49.12 for a dinner for 10, are the lowest since 2013, said the American Farm Bureau Federation. The biggest item for the meal, in weight and dollars — 16-pound turkey — costs $1.40 a pound, or 1.4-percent less than last year.