The cost of groceries increased nearly 10% year-over-year and 1% since February, driven largely by a rise in prices of meat, poultry, fish, and eggs, according to Consumer Price Index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Tuesday, April 12. The report was released amid the highest documented inflation in more than four decades.
Economists consider two versions of the CPI data, which measures the change in prices paid by urban consumers for goods and services. The “headline” CPI, which rose 8.5%, includes all prices consumers face from housing and gas to bananas; while “core” CPI, which rose 6.5%, excludes typically volatile food and energy prices. The headline CPI increase came in slightly above the 8.4% increase many economists predicted. Meanwhile, the cost of energy increased by 32%. The BLS measures consumer costs by tracking CPI, which measures price changes, and average prices, which offer estimates of real-world prices for goods and services paid by consumers.
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