Inflation in battleground state Pennsylvania remains higher than national average

Battleground state Pennsylvania will be closely watched on Election Day, and Keystone State consumers are continuing to grapple with inflation higher than the national average as both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump campaign in the state on the eve of the election.

The Labor Department’s consumer price index (CPI) – a broad measure of how much everyday goods like gasoline, groceries and rent cost – was up by 3.4% on an annual basis in September for the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ mid-Atlantic region, which includes Pennsylvania. That figure is well above the national inflation rate of 2.4%.

Inflation has been particularly persistent in the Philadelphia metropolitan area over the last several years. The region is a key economic driver of the region and holds significant political sway in what’s expected to be a closely contested election. 

A report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) analyzing U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data found that consumers in the Philadelphia metro area experienced one of the highest increases in retail food prices during the inflation surge of 2021-2022.

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GAO’s analysis concluded that food prices in Philadelphia rose 13.63% from 2021 to 2022, above the national average of 11.42%. That left Philadelphia with the third-highest food inflation of all U.S. cities – trailing only Detroit (14.49%) and Dallas (14.03%). 

A report by the USDA’s Economic Research Service found that retail food prices in the Philadelphia metro area were up 6.3% in 2023, which ranked as the third-highest among major metro areas, behind only Houston’s 7.8% and Boston’s 7%.

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Relatively high inflation continues to be an issue for the Philadelphia metro area, as the BLS found that in September grocery prices for food at home in the area were 3.7% higher than they were a year ago.

That leaves Philadelphia consumers facing faster growth in grocery prices than the average for U.S. cities, which was 1.3%, and the broader Northeast region’s 1.4% grocery price growth. It’s also higher than in nearby metro areas, including the Washington, D.C. metro’s 2.4% grocery inflation and Baltimore’s 0.7% rise. 

One area of modest relief from inflation for consumers in the Philadelphia area is in household energy prices, which are up 1.9% from a year ago compared to 2.5% for U.S. cities on average. 

Electricity prices in Philadelphia have risen more than twice as fast as the national average over the past year, coming in at an increase of 7.6% for the city versus 3.7% for the average of U.S. cities. 

The cost of gas service helped offset that disparity, as utility gas service costs declined 2.1% in Philadelphia versus a rise of 2% nationally.