Prices in the St. Louis area, as measured by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), advanced 0.8 percent for the two months ending in June 2024, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Michael Hirniak noted that the all items less food and energy index rose 0.6 percent, largely due to an increase in the index for shelter. The index for energy advanced 5.4 percent, almost entirely due to a rise in the index for electricity. Food prices declined 0.2 percent over the two-month period.  (Data in this report are not seasonally adjusted. Accordingly, bi-monthly changes may reflect seasonal influences.)

Over the last 12 months, the CPI-U increased 3.4 percent. The index for all items less food and energy rose 4.3 percent over the year, while food prices advanced 1.7 percent. Energy prices fell 1.7 percent, mainly the result of a decrease in the index for electricity. (See chart 1 and table 1.)

  

View Chart Data

Chart 1. Over-the-year percent change in CPI-U, St. Louis, MO-IL, June 2021–June 2024

Month	All items	All items less food and energy
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
Feb 2024	3.6	4.8
Apr 2024	4.0	4.2
Jun 2024	3.4	4.3

Food prices declined 0.2 percent for the two months ending in June. Prices for food at home (grocery store prices) fell 0.4 percent, while prices for food away from home (restaurant, cafeteria, and vending purchases) were unchanged for the same period. Within the food at home category, a decrease in the prices paid for meats, poultry, fish and eggs (-1.6 percent) led declines in the index. An increase in the index for dairy and related products (+1.0 percent) partially offset the decline.

Over the year, food prices increased 1.7 percent. Prices for food away from home rose 3.5 percent since a year ago. Prices for food at home advanced 0.5 percent, with the index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs (+2.1 percent) leading the rise.

The energy index increased 5.4 percent for the two months ending in June. The rise was almost entirely due to higher prices for electricity (+31.7 percent), while prices for natural gas service advanced 0.8 percent. Partially offsetting the rise, prices for gasoline declined 6.2 percent for the same period.

From June 2023 to June 2024, energy prices fell 1.7 percent, largely due to lower prices for electricity (-3.6 percent). Prices for gasoline fell 2.6 percent. Rising prices for natural gas service partially offset the decrease in the index, advancing 8.5 percent over the past year.

The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.6 percent in the latest two-month period. Higher prices for owners’ equivalent rent of residence (+1.5 percent), motor vehicle maintenance and repair, and rent of primary residence (+1.9 percent) were partially offset by lower prices for recreation and apparel, each declining 2.2 percent.

Over the year, the index for all items less food and energy advanced 4.3 percent. Increases to the indexes for shelter (+7.3 percent) and medical care (+5.3 percent) contributed most to the increase. Price decreases within new and used motor vehicles (-3.6 percent) partly offset the rise.

The August 2024 Consumer Price Index for the St. Louis area is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, September 11, 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.