WASHINGTON DC -- Newly released inflation figures show that President Donald Trump was wrong when he repeatedly claimed this month that grocery prices?are “down” or “way down.”
They were up, again, last month. And they have increased since the start of his presidency.
Average grocery prices rose 0.3% from August to September, according to?Consumer Price Index figures?released Friday. That increase followed a 0.6% jump from July to August, which was the biggest month-to-month jump?in three years.
Average grocery prices in September were about 2.7% higher than they were a year prior and about 1.4% higher than they were in January, the month Trump returned to office.
The grocery price increases have been broad, spanning the vast majority of product categories tracked by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Prices in four of the six major grocery categories increased from August to September. The cereals and bakery products category was up 0.7%; the nonalcoholic beverages category was also up 0.7%; the meats, poultry, fish and eggs category was up 0.3%; the “other food at home” category was up 0.5%. The fruits and vegetables category was unchanged, while the dairy and related products category was down 0.5%.
Prices in all six categories have increased over the past year. Since September 2024, the nonalcoholic beverages category was up 5.3%; the meats, poultry, fish, and eggs category was up 5.2%; the “other food at home” category was up 1.9%; the cereals and bakery products category was up 1.6%; the fruits and vegetables category was up 1.3%; and the dairy and related products category was up 0.7%.
There have been particularly sharp increases since September 2024 in the prices of coffee (up 18.9%) and beef and veal (up 14.7%). Overall consumer prices are up 3.0% since September 2024.
Trump?campaigned?on?a promise to reduce grocery prices. Since returning to the White House, he has claimed over and over that he has actually done so – ignoring the federal data that shows he has not.
He continued to make such claims even after the September release of the?previous Consumer Price Index report?that showed the 0.6% increase in average grocery prices from July to August.