Fayette shoppers pay 3.4 percent more for goods, services in 2007
Fayette County consumers paid a little more for commodities during the second half of 2007, mainly due to higher prices for gasoline. Retail prices in the Pittsburgh area, as measured by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), rose 3.4 percent from the second half of 2006 to the second half of 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Sheila Watkins, the bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that the recent advance was dominated by increases in the housing, transportation, and food and beverages indexes.
The CPI-U for the Pittsburgh area stood at 203.295 on the 1982-84 reference base, which means that a market basket of goods and services that averaged $100 in the 1982-84 period would have cost $203.30 in the second half of 2007.
Among commodities that rose the highest during the period surveyed, the transportation index increased 5.4 percent from its year-ago level, due entirely to higher prices for private transportation, in particular higher gasoline prices, Watkins said. Gasoline prices jumped 16.2 percent over the year.
The gasoline index is historically subject to rapid fluctuations; since 2000, it posted over-the-year increases of 38.6 percent in the first half of 2000 and 28.8 percent in the second half of 2005, as well as declines of 16.3 percent in the second half of 2001 and 16.2 percent in the first half of 2002.
The second highest was the energy index, which reflects pricing for gasoline and household fuels. That index jumped 13.4 percent since the second half of 2006. Watkins said the gain was due mainly to higher prices for gasoline. Higher prices for electricity and utility (piped) gas service, which rose 10 percent from the second half of 2006, also contributed to the recent 12-month energy index advance, she added.
Watkins noted that seven of the eight major categories of the Pittsburgh CPI-U had over-the-year increases in the second half of 2007. Only the recreation index recorded a decline of 2.6 percent from the second half of 2006 to the second half of 2007.
In other specific areas, Watkins said the housing index rose 2.7 percent since the second half of 2006, led by a 9.6-percent advance in fuels and utilities prices. Electricity prices jumped 16 percent. The shelter index increased 1.8 percent over the last 12 months, due largely to higher prices for both owners’ equivalent rent of primary residence (1.5 percent) and rent of primary residence (3.1 percent). Prices for household furnishings and operations, the third component of the housing index, rose .8 percent over the year.
The food and beverages index rose 5.4 percent since the second half of 2006, the largest 12-month advance since the first half of 1990.
Watkins said higher prices for food at home (5.6 percent) and food away from home (5.9 percent) were almost entirely responsible for the overall increase in the food and beverages index. Prices for alcoholic beverages edged up .4 percent over the year.
Medical care prices advanced 4 percent from the second half of 2006 to the second half of 2007. Education and communication prices increased 3.7 percent over the year, the largest 12-month increase in this index since the second half of 2002.
The Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Fayette, Washington, Westmoreland, Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver and Butler counties.