Food inflation stands out in October consumer pricing surge

Much to the dismay of U.S. shoppers, consumer prices jumped more than 6% in October, boosted mainly by surging gasoline prices but also continued high inflation for food.

The Consumer Price Index (all urban consumers) rose 6.2% year-over-year (unadjusted) for October, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported yesterday. What’s more, the 0.9% month-to-month increase (seasonally adjusted) more than doubled the 0.4% uptick from August to September.

Food pricing was up 5.3% year over year in October, with the monthly gain of 0.9% the same as in September. Food-at-home prices climbed 5.3% during October versus a year earlier, but the month saw the second straight sequential increase of 1% or more. Month-to-month food-at-home pricing escalated 1% for October and 1.2% for September, the highest for the year to date.

In comparison, food-away-from-home index in October advanced 5.3% from a year ago, with a monthly increase of 0.8%, up from 0.5% for September.

Elevated energy costs were the main culprit for October’s CPI surge, up 30% year over year and 4.8% month to month. Gas and fuel oil prices jumped 49.6% and 59.1%, respectively, versus a year ago. The monthly upticks were 6.1% for gas and 12.3% for fuel oil.

Excluding food and energy, October’s CPI rose 4.6% from a year ago and 0.6% from a month ago, according to BLS.

In the food-at-home segment, all of the six major grocery-store food group indexes were up for October versus a year earlier. The index for meat, poultry, fish and eggs climbed 11.9%, including increases of 20.1% for beef and 14.1% for pork, its largest 12-month uptick since December 1990, BLS noted. Over the last 12 months, increases in the other major grocery food indices ranged from 1.8% in dairy and related products to 4.5% in non-alcoholic beverages.

Month-to-month gains in grocery food indices for October included 1.7% for meat, poultry, fish and eggs (following a 2.2% uptick in September); 3.1% for beef; 1.1% for cereal and bakery products (following a 1.1% increase in September); 0.8% for non-alcoholic beverages; 0.2% for dairy and related products; and 0.1% for fruit and vegetables. BLS said the index for “other food at home” rose 1.2% from the previous month, the segment’s largest monthly increase since April 2020, just after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.