The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) in the New York-Newark-Jersey City area ticked up 0.1 percent in December, following two consecutive declines, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner William J. Sibley attributed the upturn to rising prices for items other than food and energy, including shelter. (Data in this report are not seasonally adjusted. Accordingly, month-to-month changes may reflect the impact of seasonal influences.)

Over the last 12 months, the CPI-U increased 2.9 percent. (See chart 1 and table A.) The all items less food and energy index rose 3.4 percent, while food prices increased 2.5 percent. The energy index, on the other hand, fell 4.1 percent. (See table 1.)

  

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

Month	All items	All items less food and energy
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
Apr 2023	3.7	4.4
May 2023	3.5	5.1
Jun 2023	2.5	3.8
Jul 2023	3.2	4.4
Aug 2023	3.5	4.5
Sep 2023	3.7	4.1
Oct 2023	3.5	4.0
Nov 2023	3.0	3.9
Dec 2023	2.9	3.4

Food prices inched up 0.1 percent in December after no change in November. A 0.6-percent rise in prices for food away from home was tempered by a 0.2-percent decline in prices for food at home. Higher prices for full-service meals and snacks contributed to the away-from-home increase, while within the at-home component, prices declined in four of the six grocery categories.

From December 2022 to December 2023, the food index rose 2.5 percent. Prices for food eaten away from home increased 5.8 percent, while grocery food prices were up 0.8 percent.

The energy index was down 2.7 percent in December, led by a 4.9-percent decline in gasoline prices. Household energy prices decreased 1.5 percent, with lower prices for electricity (-1.3 percent) and fuel oil. In contrast, natural gas prices rose 2.0 percent.

For the year ended in December 2023, the New York area energy index fell 4.1 percent. Household energy prices declined 4.5 percent, driven by lower prices for natural gas (-12.1 percent) and fuel oil. These declines were partly offset by a 4.5-percent rise in electricity prices. Gasoline prices decreased 3.1 percent.

The index for all items less food and energy edged up 0.2 percent in December. A 0.4-percent rise in shelter prices included increases of 0.4 percent for residential rent and 0.3 percent for owners’ equivalent rent. Prices for household furnishings and operations also rose (1.3 percent). In contrast to typical December price reductions, apparel prices increased 2.4 percent. Higher prices were also recorded for medical care (0.3 percent). Index items with price increases were partly offset by lower airline fares and by a 3.6-percent decline in prices for new and used motor vehicles (a category that includes leased vehicles and rentals).

Over the year, the index for all items less food and energy increased 3.4 percent. Shelter prices rose 5.3 percent, with increases of 5.7 percent for owners’ equivalent rent and 5.0 percent for residential rent. Recreation, up 7.1 percent, also contributed to the annual change. In contrast, medical care was down 3.9 percent compared to last December.

The Consumer Price Index for January 2024 is scheduled to be released on Tuesday, February 13, 2024, at 8:30 a.m. (ET).

The Consumer Price Index for New York is published monthly. 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 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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