FOOD PRICES SURGE

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BOSTON GLOBE - After nearly two decades of low food inflation, prices
for staples such as bread, milk, eggs, and flour are rising sharply,
surging in the past year at double-digit rates, according to the Labor
Department. Milk prices, for example, increased 26 percent over the
year. Egg prices jumped 40 percent.

Escalating food costs could present a greater problem than soaring oil
prices for the national economy because the average household spends
three times as much for food as for gasoline. Food accounts for about 13
percent of household spending compared with about 4 percent for gas. . .


As with energy, higher food costs cut into discretionary income that
buys everything from cars to computers to movie tickets and drives the
consumer-based US economy. Falling home values and a faltering stock
market have battered consumer confidence, spurring a retrenchment in
spending that is contributing to recent job losses and pulling the
economy toward recession.

http://www.boston.com/business/personalfinance/articles/
2008/03/09/surging_costs_of_groceries_hit_home/


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