Shoppers saw more relief at the grocery store in April as prices fell another 0.2%, driven by declines in dairy products, pork, eggs, and some fruits and vegetables.
The drop in the cost of eating at home helped soften an overall 0.4% increase in the Consumer Price Index for April; princes rose for shelter, motor vehicles and gasoline, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday.
The CPI had risen just 0.1% in March; supermarket prices fell 0.3%, the first such decline since 2020. But despite the March drop and the April decline, the cost of eating at home is still up 7.1% over April 2022.
The price index for dairy and related products fell 0.7% in April led by a 2% drop in the price of milk, the largest such decline since February 2015.
Egg prices fell 1.5% in April, and consumers paid 1.2% less for pork. Egg prices are still up more than 21% over a year ago, although continue to fall from the peak that followed last year’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza.
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The index for fruits and vegetables dropped 0.5%, driven in part by lower prices for citrus, potatoes and tomatoes.
Andy Harig, vice president of tax, trade, sustainability and policy development for FMI-The Food Industry Association, which represents large grocery chains, said the April data "shows promising progress for shoppers, as inflation – and subsequently grocery prices – continue its steady, albeit slow, decline. Following recent price declines in the volatile commodities of meat, poultry, eggs and fish, we are seeing that while prices for food at home fall slowly, we are still headed in the right direction.”
USDA's Economic Research Service expects supermarket prices to be 6.6% higher in 2023, well above the historic average inflation rate for food-at-home costs of 2.5% a year.
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