The price of a week’s worth of groceries isn’t the same for shoppers as it was in 2019, with prices steadily rising due to a changing economy that does bring in higher inflation rates.
These higher prices are a hot topic in the upcoming presidential election, as the economy under the Biden administration has been continuously attacked by Republicans despite statistics that show that it’s strong. Just today the the reports showed that the US economy added 303,000 jobs in March, much stronger than expected.
But despite a strong economy, according to an analysis published by the Wall Street Journal, people now have to spend about $137 for the same assortment of groceries they were able to buy for $100 in 2019.
Laundry detergent has seen one of the more substantial spikes compared to five years ago, as the average price of a bottle today is about $10.66, which is an increase of $2.83 from the average cost in 2019, which was about $7.83.
Additionally, frozen pizza, which cost around $3.77 in 2019, now has an average price of approximately $5.15. Along with the ever-popular strawberry jam and peanut butter, which saw their prices hiked by more than $1 in the five-year span.
February’s Consumer Price Index, which tracks changes in the cost of everyday goods and services, came in at 3.2%, which is a bit higher than the 3.1% inflation figure economists surveyed by FactSet expected.
Last week, the core Personal Consumption Expenditures Index, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.3% in February and 2.8% each year since 2019.
In February of 2023, grocery prices shot up by 10.2% compared with the costs that were documented a year prior.
Within the last three years, grocery prices have risen 21% overall, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In a response to these spikes on Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that the central bank remains committed to its strategy of cutting interest rates later in the year.
While inflation rates remain comparatively high, it is still well off the 40-year rate of 9.1% that was hit in 2022.
