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Home > Consumer Products > CHART OF THE DAY: Higher food costs during the pandemic

CHART OF THE DAY: Higher food costs during the pandemic

Sep. 11, 2020 by Joseph Brusuelas

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The latest consumer price inflation data confirms what we all know – it costs more to eat during the pandemic, but it costs a lot less to drive to your favorite closed restaurant.

Using February as the base month – the high point for the “all Items” consumer price index – the cost for food made at home is 3.6% higher than before the economic shutdown. Food purchased away from home now costs 2% more than it did in February, and food in general costs 2.8% higher.

By comparison, consumer energy costs are 9.6% lower now than they were in February, which is one reason why risks to the outlook remain skewed toward disinflation or deflation and why inflation expectations remain well anchored.

This speaks to the inequality of the pandemic, which has hit the poorest among us the hardest. While for those of us able to work at home, the rising costs of food products are noticeable but financially insignificant, at least relative to a laborer without a job or with reduced hours.

For more information on how the coronavirus is affecting midsize businesses, please visit the RSM Coronavirus Resource Center.

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Filed Under: Consumer Products, Coronavirus, Economics Tagged With: coronavirus, Covid-19, Joseph Brusuelas

About Joseph Brusuelas

@JoeBrusuelas

Joe Brusuelas, “chief economist to the middle market,” is the preeminent voice championing issues and policies facing midsize companies in the United States and around the world. An award-winning economist, Brusuelas has more than 20 years’ experience analyzing U.S. monetary policy, labor markets, fiscal policy, international finance, economic indicators and the condition of the U.S. consumer.

A member of the Wall Street Journal’s forecasting panel, Brusuelas regularly briefs members of Congress and other senior officials regarding the impacts of federal policy on the middle market and the factors by which middle market executives make business decisions. He also frequently offers his insights on the U.S., Canadian and global economies in the financial media. In 2020, he was named one of the 100 most influential economists by Richtopia.

Before joining RSM in 2014, Brusuelas spent four years as a senior economist at Bloomberg L.P. and the Bloomberg Briefs newsletter group, where he co-founded the award-winning Bloomberg Economic Brief. Earlier in his career, he was a director at Moody's Analytics covering the U.S. and global economies for the Dismal Scientist website. He also served as chief economist at Merk Investments L.L.C. and chief U.S. economist at IDEAglobal.

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