Prices in the St. Louis area, as measured by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), declined 0.2 percent for the two months ending in December 2023, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Michael Hirniak noted that the energy index declined 7.1 percent, almost entirely due to falling gasoline prices. The food index decreased 0.3 percent over the past two months. The all items less food and energy index rose 0.5 percent, mainly due to increasing costs for shelter. (Data in this report are not seasonally adjusted. Accordingly, bi-monthly changes may reflect seasonal influences.)

Over the last 12 months, the CPI-U advanced 2.8 percent. (See chart 1 and table 1.) The index for all items less food and energy was up 3.6 percent over the year, while food prices rose 0.2 percent. Energy prices declined 0.6 percent, largely the result of a decrease in the price of electricity.

  

View Chart Data

Chart 1. Over-the-year percent change in CPI-U, St. Louis, MO-IL, December 2020–December 2023

Month	All items	All items less food and energy
Dec 2020	1.2	2.2
Feb 2021	1.6	1.8
Apr 2021	5.4	4.8
Jun 2021	6.1	5.0
Aug 2021	6.6	5.2
Oct 2021	7.5	5.8
Dec 2021	8.3	6.3
Feb 2022	8.2	6.3
Apr 2022	8.4	5.7
Jun 2022	8.4	4.8
Aug 2022	7.5	5.3
Oct 2022	7.0	5.0
Dec 2022	6.2	5.0
Feb 2023	5.9	4.8
Apr 2023	4.2	4.6
Jun 2023	3.1	4.8
Aug 2023	3.1	3.7
Oct 2023	3.1	3.8
Dec 2023	2.8	3.6

Food prices fell 0.3 percent for the two months ending in December. Prices for food at home (grocery store prices) decreased 0.7 percent, while prices for food away from home (restaurant, cafeteria, and vending purchases) increased 0.4 percent for the same period. Within the food a home category, the index for cereals and bakery products (-4.1 percent) and other food at home (-0.9 percent) contributed most to the decline in the index; the indexes for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs (+1.1 percent) and dairy and related products (+0.7 percent) partially offset the decline.

Over the year, food prices advanced 0.2 percent. Prices for food at home advanced 0.8 percent since a year ago, and prices for food away from home declined 0.6 percent.

The energy index decreased 7.1 percent for the two months ending in December. The decline was mainly due to lower prices for gasoline (-15.1 percent); prices for electricity also declined (-0.1 percent). Slightly offsetting the decrease, the index for natural gas service increased 2.3 percent over the two-month period.

From December 2022 to December 2023, energy prices declined 0.6 percent, largely due to lower prices for electricity (-1.3 percent). Prices paid for natural gas service fell 0.8 percent, while prices for gasoline rose 0.5 percent during the past year.

The index for all items less food and energy increased 0.5 percent in the latest two-month period. Higher prices for shelter (+1.2 percent), recreation (+0.3 percent), and public transportation were partially offset by lower prices for apparel (-5.8 percent), new vehicles (-0.9 percent), and household furnishings and operations (-0.7 percent).

Over the year, the index for all items less food and energy rose 3.6 percent. Components contributing most to the increase included owners’ equivalent rent of residences (+6.1 percent), rent of primary residence (+5.3 percent) and other goods and services (+4.2 percent). Partly offsetting the increases were price decreases in medical care services, and education and communication (-1.9 percent).

The February 2024 Consumer Price Index for the St. Louis area is scheduled to be released on Tuesday, March 12, 2024.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change in prices over time in a fixed market basket of goods and services. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes CPIs for two population groups: (1) a CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) which covers approximately 93 percent of the total U.S. population and (2) a CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) which covers approximately 29 percent of the total U.S. population. The CPI-U includes, in addition to wage earners and clerical workers, groups such as professional, managerial, and technical workers, the self-employed, short-term workers, the unemployed, and retirees and others not in the labor force.

The CPI is based on prices of food, clothing, shelter, and fuels, transportation fares, charges for doctors' and dentists' services, drugs, and the other goods and services that people buy for day-to-day living. Each month, prices are collected in 75 urban areas across the country from about 6,000 housing units and approximately 22,000 retail establishments—department stores, supermarkets, hospitals, filling stations, and other types of stores and service establishments. All taxes directly associated with the purchase and use of items are included in the index.

The index measures price changes from a designated reference date; for most of the CPI-U the reference base is 1982-84 equals 100. An increase of 7 percent from the reference base, for example, is shown as 107.000.  Alternatively, that relationship can also be expressed as the price of a base period market basket of goods and services rising from $100 to $107. For further details see the CPI home page on the internet at www.bls.gov/cpi and the CPI section of the BLS Handbook of Methods available on the internet at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cpi/.

In calculating the index, price changes for the various items in each location are averaged together with weights that represent their importance in the spending of the appropriate population group. Local data are then combined to obtain a U.S. city average. Because the sample size of a local area is smaller, the local area index is subject to substantially more sampling and other measurement error than the national index. In addition, local indexes are not adjusted for seasonal influences. As a result, local area indexes show greater volatility than the national index, although their long-term trends are quite similar. NOTE: Area indexes do not measure differences in the level of prices between cities; they only measure the average change in prices for each area since the base period.

The St. Louis, MO-IL, area covered in this release includes Bond, Calhoun, Clinton, Jersey, Macoupin, Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair counties in Illinois; and Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, St. Charles, St. Louis, and Warren counties and St. Louis City in Missouri.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.