Honolulu consumer Higher prices for food and beverages wiped out lower fuel and utilities costs to cause a 1.1 percent annual increase in Honolulu consumer prices in the second half of last year over the same period in 2000.
prices rise 1.1%
Increased costs for food and
beverages contribute to the gain
in the second half of '01By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.comThere was a 4 percent increase in the Honolulu food and beverages category, led by food at home, up 4.7 percent, with the cost of eating out up 3.7 percent and alcoholic beverages up 3.3 percent compared to the second half of 2000.
Also higher were apparel costs, up 2.6 percent year-over-year, the federal agency that watches prices nationwide said today.
But Honolulu consumers found it easier to pay for household electricity, down 3.4 percent year over year, and household natural gas, down 2.8 percent. Those declines helped hold the housing component of the Honolulu Consumer Price Index to only a 0.4 percent year-over-year. Home ownership, which is mostly mortgage costs, was up 1 percent and rent of a primary residence was up 0.9 percent.
The smaller "household furnishing and operations" component of housing costs was up 2.2 percent year over year. Transportation costs held the line, also with only a 0.9 percent increase from the second half of 2000, due to lower gasoline prices. Apparel costs were up 0.3 percent for the year.
While Honolulu prices are only reported twice a year, in February for the July through December period and August for the January through June period, national and regional figures are reported monthly and also came out today.
Inflation hit 2.3 percent on average for the 13 western states and 1.1 percent nationwide over the last 12 months. The natinal figure marks the smallest increase since the 12 months ending in December 1986.
According to national news reports, economists believe consumer prices will remain steady in the months ahead because companies will continue to find it difficult to raise prices as the economy tries to pull out of recession.
Comparing the second half of the year to just the first half of 2001, Honolulu inflation was negligible at 0.3 percent.
In that shorter-term comparison, food and beverages were up 1.4 percent, housing was up 0.3 percent and transportation costs were down 1.7 percent.
One anomaly was the apparel-costs category, which was up 2.6 percent from the first half of the year.
That was the first semi-annual increase in that category since the first half of 1998 and the largest such increase since the first half of 1996, said the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This time, there were no numbers for local medical care costs, which over the years were the fastest growing component of the consumer price package.
The BLS regional office in San Francisco said the sample size polled for the latest semi-annual report was too small for statistical reporting.
In the last half of last year, the Honolulu Consumer Price Index stood at 178.7, up from a year-earlier 176.7, meaning that a market basket of goods and services that cost $176.70 in the second half of 2000 had risen to $178.70. The index is based on a 1982-84 level of 100.
Bureau of Labor Statistics