The impact of the COVID-19 situation continues to show in various areas, now showing in food prices. USDA’s monthly update to the food price forecasts typically does not see a lot of adjustments.
The April rate of inflation for food at home (grocery store) prices increased 2.7% from March and were up 4.1% from April 2019. “Food-at-home prices had a month-to-month rate of inflation higher than any month since 1990, while food-away-from-home prices were nearly flat,” USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) said. “For the past several years, inflation for food-at-home prices had been slower than for food-away-from-home prices; however, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have ended that trend.”
The situation also prompted an upward revision to the grocery store (food at home) price forecast, upping that to a rise of 2% to 3% vs 0.5% to 1.5% the agency saw in their month-ago update. And overall food prices are now seen rising 2% to 3% as well, up from 1.5% to 2.5% previously.
Within the grocery store prices, only three areas were not revised upward from the month-ago marks.
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