Prices in the New York-Newark-Jersey City area, as measured by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), increased 0.4 percent in March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner William J. Sibley noted that the March increase was influenced by higher prices for non-food items, including shelter and energy. (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 rose 3.4 percent. (See chart 1 and table A). The index for all items less food and energy rose 3.5 percent over the year. Energy prices advanced 6.9 percent, and food prices rose 1.2 percent. (See table 1.)

  

View Chart Data

Chart 1. Over-the-year percent change in CPI-U, New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA, March 2021–March 2024

Month	All items	All items less food and energy
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
Jan 2024	3.1	3.7
Feb 2024	2.9	3.4
Mar 2024	3.4	3.5

Food prices inched down 0.1 percent in March. Prices for food at home decreased 0.2 percent, and prices for food away from home ticked up 0.1 percent for the same period. Three of the six grocery categories experienced price declines.

Over the year, food prices rose 1.2 percent. Prices for food away from home increased 4.0 percent, while prices for food at home decreased 0.3 percent.

The energy index rose 2.2 percent over the month. Higher prices for household energy (2.2 percent) included a 4.2-percent increase in electricity prices. Prices fell for natural gas (0.2 percent) and fuel oil. Prices for gasoline increased 2.2 percent.

Energy prices advanced 6.9 percent over the year, as prices increased for household energy (11.4 percent). Within household energy, prices rose for electricity (19.4 percent) and natural gas (3.1 percent). On the other hand, prices for gasoline fell 0.3 percent.

The index for all items less food and energy was up 0.3 percent in March. Shelter prices rose 0.4 percent, with increases in owners’ equivalent rent (0.3 percent), residential rent (0.1 percent), and lodging away from home. Apparel prices rose 2.3 percent, and new and used motor vehicles, a category that includes leased cars and trucks, increased 1.5 percent. The increases were partially offset by lower prices for household furnishings and operations (-0.7 percent) and recreation (-0.5 percent).

Over the year, the index for all items less food and energy advanced 3.5 percent, largely due to a 4.9-percent increase in shelter prices. Within the shelter component, owners’ equivalent rent advanced 5.6 percent and residential rent increased 4.3 percent. Prices for recreation rose 4.0 percent. Prices decreased for apparel (-3.7 percent) and medical care (-0.8 percent).

The Consumer Price Index for April 2024 is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, May 15, 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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