Inflation is still battering Americans, as new figures show grocery prices rising 11.8% year-over-year in December.
Several staple grocery items posted eye-popping increases in December even as inflation cooled. Eggs jumped by a whopping 59.9%, while dairy products increased 15.3% and poultry rose 12.2%.
Even rapper Cardi B, who you would expect could afford a few luxuries, remarked upon the wallop.
“Lettuce was like $2 a couple months ago and now it’s like f—ing $7, of course I’m [going to] say something. The f—?” she said.
“Cause if I think that s— is crazy, I could only imagine what middle class people or people in the hood [are] motherf—ing thinking,” she said.
Inflation overall rose 6.5% from the year before, after rising 7% from December 2020 to December 2021.
On a monthly basis, prices declined 0.1% compared to November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest release on Thursday, a drop thanks mainly to a fall in gasoline price.
Still, the rate is well above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%, as the central bank weighs pressing ahead with interest rate hikes that have rattled the US economy.
Food and housing prices remained a source of pain for US household budgets last month. The services index, which includes housing, transportation and medical care, rose 7% compared to last year.
Besides general supply problems and added costs, avian flu affected egg production as a more than 50 million birds died from the disease last year, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Twitter users have posted pictures of cartons of eggs at Whole Foods priced as high as $11.49.
“I never thought EGGS would become a luxury item,” commentator Mike Cernovich wrote.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell and other central bank policymakers have stressed that they will need to see clear signals that inflation has eased before pausing interest rate hikes.
Policymakers signaled more increases are likely in 2023 and that the Fed’s benchmark rate is likely to remain in restrictive territory for some time. The central bank implemented seven consecutive hikes last year.
During a speech in Sweden earlier this week, Powell gave no clear signal about the size of the Fed’s next rate hike.
“Price stability is the bedrock of a healthy economy and provides the public with immeasurable benefits over time,” Powell said. “But restoring price stability when inflation is high can require measures that are not popular in the short term as we raise interest rates to slow the economy.”
