Prices increase as a whole across the Midwest

TOPEKA (KSNT) – You can feel it in your wallet. Across the board, prices in the Midwest are higher than the same period last year.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) keeps track of the price of goods and services in the market. Consumers are still recovering from the feverish inflation seen in 2021. In January 2024, prices in the Midwest Region rose 0.3%; a 2.7% increase from the previous year.

The Midwest Region consists of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

In 2021, the Midwest Region saw prices skyrocket across the market, increasing by 7.5% before reaching a peak in June 2022 of 9.5%. Since then, prices gradually decreased to 2.4% in June of 2023 before seeing back-and-forth fluctuations between 2.9% and now 3.2%.

On the national level, a shift from the driver of inflation being mostly on goods to services could raise concerns with the Federal Reserve because service inflation typically takes longer to cool, according to a report from the Associated Press (AP).

During a recent press conference, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell highlighted high service prices as a concern. Powell indicated service inflation needed to ease before key interest rates could be cut, according to the AP.

“There’s still some inflation in the system that’s going to take some time to work through,” said Omair Sharif, founder of Inflation Insights, a research firm. “This justifies the Fed wanting to wait and see how things are going to go.”

Food

Prices for the Midwest Region in January were 0.2% higher for all items except food and energy. Food and energy were also up 0.8% and 0.6% respectively.

At home, food prices rose 0.9% with consumers also seeing a 0.7% price increase for food away from home. For the year, food away from home rose 4.4% and food at home rose 1.3% since last year.

Energy

Saving consumers at the pump, energy prices fell 7.8% for the year largely attributed to declining prices of gasoline which fell 0.9% in January. Natural gas service prices also contributed to a 17.7% price decline. While the energy market saw an overall decrease in prices, the cost of electricity increased by 4.4%.

All items except food and energy

Contributing the most to the index for all items except food and energy was the equivalent rent of residences, rent of primary residences and other goods and services. Since 2023, equivalent rent of residences increased 6.7%, rent of primary residences rose 6.3% and other goods and services rose 5.6%.

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The Associated Press contributed to the reporting in this article.