Highest Food Price Increase Since 1990
It’s no surprise food prices have gone up, but the government reports they haven’t risen this much since 1990:
Food prices have risen 6.1 percent in the past three months on a seasonally adjusted annual basis. The one-month rise between March and April of 0.9 percent was the biggest since January 1990, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The rise in prices covered all categories of food but was most severe among such staple goods as grains and oils — goods where inflation has touched off food riots in some less developed countries and led to concerns about supply shortages.
The costs of cereal and bakery products increased 1.4 percent from March to April and have risen nearly 20 percent in the past three months on a seasonally adjusted basis. Prices for fats and oils jumped more than 5 percent in April, on a seasonally adjusted annual basis, and have increased more than 26 percent in the past three months. Prices for sugars and sweets increased more than 10 percent during that same period.
President Bush’s chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Edward Lazear, told Congress that increased ethanol production accounts for only 1.2% of food price increases. He disagrees with the IMF who argues biofuels have caused half of the increase.
