Inflation Alert: Grocers Are Starting To Pass Along Their Higher Wholesale Costs To Consumers

After two months of sharp increases in food prices, grocers are starting to pass along their higher wholesale costs to consumers.

Beverly Cabellon, 61, of Pleasant Hill, Calif., was taken aback by the $38 price for two steaks at Costco recently, up from the $27 she paid last September. “I will be grilling more vegetables and shrimp this summer,” she says, adding that she and her husband will likely eat beef once a month instead of weekly. “And I may switch to pork and chicken.”

Food prices increased 0.4% after posting a similar jump in February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday. That’s the largest monthly increase since September 2011. Beef, pork, poultry, eggs and milk have had the most dramatic price hikes as drought, a virus outbreak and rising exports have thinned U.S. supplies.

Overall consumer prices rose 0.2% in March, a bit more rapidly than in recent months, and annual inflation was 1.5%, up from 1.1% in February. Still, that’s well below the Federal Reserve‘s 2% target as falling gasoline prices offset rising food costs.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101588110

US Food Prices Up 19% Since December!!!

h/t Bloomberg’s Chase van der Rhoer

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-26/real-inflation-fear-us-food-prices-are-19-2014

IHS Economist: ‘Living Standards Will Suffer’ as Food Prices Surge

Food prices are registering sharp gains, climbing 0.4 percent in both February and March and threatening to put a damper on the economy.

The 0.4 percent increase compares with smaller gains for the overall consumer price index of 0.1 percent in February and 0.2 percent in March.

What’s happening is that wholesalers have raised the prices they charge grocers, and grocers in turn have passed along the increases to their customers, USA Today reports. That obviously creates a hardship for consumers, who account for about 70 percent of GDP.

Read more:

http://www.moneynews.com/Economy/food-prices-inflation-consumers/2014/04/16/id/566053/

Everyone’s Talking About This Bullish Trend, But Art Cashin Warns It’s Hyperinflationary

We’re seeing increasing amounts of evidence to suggest that business spending activity is picking up.

 

The most compelling evidence that many analysts are pointing to is the recent acceleration of commercial and industrial loans (C&I) as reported by the Federal Reserve.

“Why is lending increasing so fast in the US?” asked The Financialist’s Jens Erik Gould. “There are two primary factors: a recovering economy and loose monetary policy meant to entice businesses to take on more debt.”