Fast-rising energy prices drove the overall Consumer Price Index up 0.9% in March, with gas prices increasing 21.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Food prices were relatively stable, with grocery prices down 0.2% and food away from home up 0.2%.
The jump in gas prices as a result of the US-Israeli war on Iran fueled what is now an 18.9% increase in gas over the past 12 months. Fuel oil prices, meanwhile, were up 30.7% in March and 44.2% over the past 12 months.
The overall CPI – the “all-items index” – has now risen 3.3% over the past year. It had risen 2.4% for the 12 months ending February.
After rising 0.4% in February, the food index was unchanged in March, BLS said. Four of the six major grocery store food group indexes decreased last month, according to a BLS news release. “The index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs decreased 0.6% over the month as the index for eggs declined 3.4%.” Eggs are now down 44.7% over the past year.
Cereals and bakery products were down 0.6% last month, as were dairy and related products. Nonalcoholic beverages fell 0.3%.
Meats were generally down, with ground beef falling 1.2%, bacon down 2.7% and breakfast sausages lower by 0.6%. Chicken prices overall were unchanged, but whole chickens were down 0.9% in price. The price of steak, up 15.2% over the past year, was down 0.1% in March.
Whole milk prices decreased 0.2% in March and have fallen 2.9% in the past 12 months. Cheese was down 1.5%.
Fresh fruit and vegetable prices rose 1.4% in March and are up 4.2% year over year. Potato prices fell 2.8% and lettuce was down 3.8%, but tomato prices rose 15.3%, bringing the increase over the past 12 months to 22.6%.
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The price of coffee continued to increase, but not as quickly as it has over the last 12 months. The monthly increase for coffee was 1.3%, but in the last 12 months the price has risen 18.7%.
Kevin Hassett, director of the Trump administration's National Economic Council, pointed to the sharp drop over last year in the price of eggs as a sign that the government is lowering prices for consumers.
"There's so many price reductions that are directly related to things that we've been working on, policies we've been pursuing," he said on Fox Business Friday. "So, for example, year over year, egg prices are down 44%. You and I remember when I first came in here, one of the first jobs we had was controlling the avian flu. Well, we controlled avian flu so much that there are hens all over the place laying eggs at a record rate."
He also said ticket prices are down 18% in the last 12 months, citing a deal the administration reached with concert promoter Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation. The CPI shows that while tickets to sporting events are down 18% from a year ago, the price of movies, theaters and concerts are up 6.2%.
Fox News host Stuart Varney was unmoved, however. "I don't think you won the war against inflation at this point," he told Hassett.
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