USDA: Food Prices Moved Higher In September

In August, many consumers were happy to hear that grocery store food prices fell 0.1% from July to August.  However, the Food Price Index during September did a big bounce back, going up by almost half a percent.

“That is the highest monthly growth in grocery prices since January," noted USDA economist Megan Sweitzer.  She added the American people should not make too big a deal out of last month's substantial increase in food prices.

“Over this year, we've seen some months where there was no change in food prices, some months where there was a decline and we've seen some months with larger increases.  So, we’ll want to watch next month to see whether this is possibly the start of a trend. Or whether it is just a single month variation in data.”

At this time, for all of 2024, Sweitzer is forecasting grocery store food prices will end up topping last year by just over 1%; the smallest yearly increase, Sweitzer noted, in years.

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