Food Price Outlook

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Description

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for food is a component of the all-items CPI. The CPI measures the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a representative market basket of consumer goods and services. While the all-items CPI measures the price changes for all consumer goods and services, including food, the CPI for food measures the changes in the retail prices of food items only. ERS's monthly update is usually released on the 25th of the month; however, if the 25th falls on a weekend or a holiday, the monthly update will be published on either the 23rd or 24th.

This report provides a detailed outline of ERS's forecasting methodology, along with measures to test the precision of the estimates (May 2015).

At ERS, work on the CPI for food consists of several activities. ERS reports the current index level for food, examines changes in the CPI for food, and constructs forecasts of the CPI for food for the next 12-18 months. Forecasting the CPI for food has become increasingly important due to the changing structure of food and agricultural economies and the important signals the forecasts provide to farmers, processors, wholesalers, consumers, and policymakers.

As a natural extension of ERS's work with the CPI for food, ERS also analyzes and models forecasts for the Producer Price Index (PPI). The PPI is similar to the CPI in that it measures price changes over time; however, instead of measuring changes in retail prices, the PPI measures the average change in prices paid to domestic producers for their output. The PPI collects data for nearly every industry in the goods-producing sector of the economy. Changes in farm-level and wholesale-level PPIs are of particular interest in forecasting food CPIs.

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Dataset Terms & Conditions: Open License

Category: Economic

Keywords: cpi, restaurant, wholesale-food-prices

Row Count: 68

Changes in Food Price Indexes, 2015 through 2018
Meats, poultry, and fish12.0
Fruits and vegetables9.8
Cereals and bakery products7.8
Note: The most recent forecast was published on October 25, 2017.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index. Forecasts by Economic Research Service.
Dairy products6.0
Pork2.3
Consumer Price IndexesPercent
Meats7.6
1BLS estimated expenditure shares, December 2016. Food prices represent approximately 13.7 percent of the total CPI.
Poultry2.5
Orange indicates an adjustment downward, blue indicates an adjustment upward, and black indicates no change from last month's forecast.
Nonalcoholic beverages6.9
Processed fruits & vegetables*2.1
Other foods10.7
Food at home57.7
Beef and Veal3.4
Fresh fruits4.1
Fresh fruits & vegetables7.6
Fresh vegetables3.5
All food100.0
[Contact: Annemarie Kuhns 202-694-5351, amkuhns@ers.usda.gov or David Levin 202-694-5353, david.levin@ers.usda.gov]
*Annual data for processed fruits and vegetables are only available from 1999. This is a 18-year historical average.
ItemRelative importance1
Fish and seafood1.9
Other meats1.9
Food away from home42.3
Fats and oils1.7
Sugar and sweets2.1
Eggs0.7
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