Food And Menu Prices Rise Moderately, Gas Prices Fall

Overall wholesale food prices and operator menu prices continued their moderate gains in April, with wholesale prices up 0.2% and menu prices climbing 0.3%.  Meanwhile, gasoline prices fell again in April and during the four weeks of May, after peaking in early April.

The April increase for wholesale foods followed a 0.6% increase in March that ended a three-month streak from December2011 to February this year of decreasing prices. Wholesale food prices are up 2.1% compared to a year ago, but still well above the cyclical lows of ’09. On the commodity front, beef and veal prices jumped 7.3% in April and are running 17% ahead of last year. On the other hand, pork prices fell 8.5%, their seventh consecutive decline, and are running 9.2% lower than last year at this time.

The 0.3% April jump in food-away-from-home prices in the Consumer Price Index maintained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics was the largest increase in three months. Menu-price increase slowed to 0.1% in February and 0.2% in March in response to the lower increases in wholesale prices in late ’11 and early’12 mentioned above. Menu prices are up 2.9% over the past 12 months. Grocery-store prices rose 0.2% and are 3.3% higher than a year ago.

Gasoline prices fell 2.6% in April, according to CPI data and have continued to fall throughout May, according to AAA. The average national price for a gallon of regular gasoline fell 4.8 cents in the week ended May 28, was 18.2 cents lower than a month ago and 15.7 cents less than a year ago. The quick decline in gas prices undoubtedly helped the consumer sentiment numbers noted in a separate article this issue.