You don?t have to go very far to see prices in the grocery store have gone up. They haven?t necessarily gone up just a little bit either. There were expectations last year that we would see a small increase in costs, and that is usually to be expected. However, the originally predicted one to two percent has long been left in the dust.
Exacerbated by economic woes, the price increases are now looking at double-digit percentage increases by year?s end. USDA Economist and Food Price Forecaster Matt McLachlan forecasts the price scales every month. He says this was not what he was expecting near the end of 2021.
McLachlan adds that the largest increases we are seeing going into this month are on meat and poultry products. However, if we look at 2022 from a high altitude, we will see that bakery products and cereals have had the largest increases.
Matt talks about the biggest factors that are still affecting the situation.
As McLachlan looks ahead to 2023, he isn?t seeing much in the way of relief. In fact, he expects to see more increases to start the year.
