- A third of 2,200 Americans questioned between May 17 and 19 say they are spending more on groceries overall, Bloomberg reports
- Data shows 65% of those surveyed believe red meat is more expensive
- A quarter said they are buying less red meat as a result of the price hikes
- For Hispanic and black Americans, more than 40% report spending more money of food since the start of 2021; for white Americans that figure is 30%
- Data has already shown that measures of inflation are rising much more quickly than experts like to see
- The average American should care about inflation because it affects the value of their dollar: For every tick it goes up, their dollar becomes worth less
Two thirds of Americans say the price of beef and chicken has rocketed since the start of 2021, according to recent survey.
Out of 2,200 Americans questioned between May 17 and 19 a third say they are spending more on groceries overall, Bloomberg reports.
Data shows 65 per cent of those surveyed believe red meat is more expensive; 59 per cent say chicken is. Toilet paper and fruit are more expensive according to 57 and 58 percent of Americans respectively, the data shows.
Milk is more expensive according to 51 percent of those surveyed; for prepared foods it is 50 percent of those questioned and for seafood 49 percent.
A quarter said they are buying less red meat as a result of the price hikes. Meat prices rocketed by up to 25 per cent last spring, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when meat plans were hit by staff shortages caused by the virus.
They subsequently dropped, but Bloomberg’s data suggests shoppers are once again feeling the pinch.
Inflation saps the value of your dollar: This is how it works
Have you ever been shopping and noticed that the prices of things you typically buy have gone up? If the items in your shopping basket cost $100 last year and now they cost $105, at a very basic level, that’s inflation.
Prices are changing all the time but we don’t say there is inflation every time we see a price increase.
Instead, we say there is inflation when the prices of many of the things we buy rise at the same time and then continue to rise.
So how can we tell when inflation is happening and by how much? We do so by looking at the prices of many items over time.
Government statistical agencies regularly gather information about the prices of thousands of goods and services.
They then organize the prices into categories such as ‘transportation’ and ‘apparel,’ they combine the prices in each category, and they report the results in various price indexes.
Price indexes are just collections of prices.
For example, some indexes contain the prices of items that consumers buy, and others contain the prices of items that businesses buy.
Others contain prices only for goods, while others contain prices only for services, and so on.
If the level of an index is higher now than it was a month or year ago, it tells us that the prices contained in that index are higher on average, which tells us there is inflation.
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland