Prices in the New York-Newark-Jersey City area, as measured by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), edged down 0.1 percent in March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. (See table A.) Regional Commissioner William J. Sibley attributed the March decline to lower energy prices. (Data in this report are not seasonally adjusted. Accordingly, month-to-month changes may reflect seasonal influences.)

Over the last 12 months, the CPI-U advanced 4.6 percent. (See chart 1 and table A.) The index for all items less food and energy increased 5.1 percent over the year. Food prices increased 8.0 percent. (See table 1.) Energy prices dropped 9.0 percent.

  

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Chart 1. Over-the-year percent change in CPI-U, New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA, March 2020–March 2023

Month	All items	All items less food and energy
Mar 2020	2.0	2.5
Apr 2020	1.1	1.5
May 2020	1.4	1.9
Jun 2020	1.3	1.5
Jul 2020	1.7	2.1
Aug 2020	1.4	1.8
Sep 2020	1.9	2.2
Oct 2020	1.7	2.0
Nov 2020	1.4	1.5
Dec 2020	1.6	1.7
Jan 2021	1.2	1.2
Feb 2021	1.4	0.9
Mar 2021	2.0	1.4
Apr 2021	3.2	2.6
May 2021	3.2	2.5
Jun 2021	4.1	3.7
Jul 2021	3.5	2.7
Aug 2021	3.7	2.6
Sep 2021	3.8	2.5
Oct 2021	4.3	2.8
Nov 2021	5.0	3.4
Dec 2021	4.4	3.0
Jan 2022	5.1	3.3
Feb 2022	5.1	4.0
Mar 2022	6.1	4.1
Apr 2022	6.3	4.4
May 2022	6.3	3.6
Jun 2022	6.7	4.1
Jul 2022	6.5	4.2
Aug 2022	6.6	4.6
Sep 2022	6.2	5.0
Oct 2022	6.0	4.9
Nov 2022	5.9	4.5
Dec 2022	6.3	5.4
Jan 2023	6.0	5.7
Feb 2023	6.0	5.6
Mar 2023	4.6	5.1

Food prices rose 0.5 percent for the month of March. Food-away-from-home prices advanced 1.3 percent. Prices for food at home increased 0.1 percent, with higher prices for grocery items including snacks and frozen and freeze dried prepared foods, partially offset by items such as lettuce, other fresh vegetables, and eggs.

For the year ending in March 2023, food prices increased 8.0 percent. Prices for food away from home advanced 8.4 percent, and prices for food at home rose 7.8 percent.

The energy index fell 4.9 percent over the month, after declining 2.7 percent in February. Lower household energy prices drove the decline (-6.4 percent). Within household energy, lower prices were reported for natural gas (-7.9 percent), electricity (-6.1 percent), and fuel oil. Gasoline prices declined 2.1 percent.

From March 2022 to March 2023, energy prices declined 9.0 percent. Gasoline prices fell 20.4 percent.  By contrast, household energy prices increased 0.6 percent, with higher prices for natural gas (7.1 percent) partially offset by lower prices for electricity (-1.1 percent) and fuel oil.

The index for all items less food and energy increased 0.2 percent in March. A 0.6-percent rise in shelter prices included price increases for residential rent (0.6 percent), owners' equivalent rent (0.2 percent), and lodging away from home. Apparel prices rose 3.4 percent. A 1.7-percent decline in new and used motor vehicles prices and a 0.8-percent decline in household furnishings and operations partially offset the increases.

Over the year, the index for all items less food and energy increased 5.1 percent. Shelter prices, up 5.8 percent, included a 5.6-percent increase for owners’ equivalent rent and a 5.8-percent increase for residential rent. Prices for new and used motor vehicles were up 6.1 percent.

The April 2023 Consumer Price Index for the New York-Newark-Jersey City area is scheduled to be released on May 10, 2023.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measures 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 New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA Core Based Statistical Area includes Bronx, Dutchess, Kings, Nassau, New York, Orange, Putnam, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Suffolk, and Westchester Counties in New York; Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, and Union Counties in New Jersey; and Pike County in Pennsylvania.

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