Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Rumblings of Inflation

The price of imported goods jumped by 1.4 percent in February, and the cost of goods for factories in the Northeast region reached their highest in almost three years, fueling fears that we're in for a bout of inflation. The turmoil abroad, especially in oil-rich Libya, has already sparked a rise in energy prices.

But aside from at the gas pump, there's been little evidence of these things factoring into our everyday consumer prices. Excluding fuel costs, prices rose just 0.3 percent in February. In January, those same prices had risen 0.7 percent.

But one area where we are seeing higher prices is, as February's report indicates, in imported consumer goods. The cost of imported food and beverages rose by 0.8 percent in February, and has now risen 15.8 percent in the past 12 months - the highest one-year increase on record.

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