Price index takes dip after months of slow growth

Utah consumers have seen a small increase in the prices they pay for goods and services every month since last fall. March saw an end to the streak. The Zions Bank Wasatch Front Consumer Price Index (CPI) decreased 0.1 percent from February to March. 

The CPI has risen 2.6 percent in the past year, while the National Consumer Price Index has increased 2.4 percent in the same time period.

{mprestriction ids="1,3"}The slight decrease was due almost entirely to price fluctuations within the transportation sector, largely the result of a drop in prices for new and used automobiles. Housing and transportation remain the largest contributors to the year-over-year CPI growth, contributing to 45 percent and 31 percent of the overall CPI growth since March of last year, respectively.

The annualized inflation rate of 2.6 percent is a drop from previous months when the index has registered over 3 percent year-over-year. This drop signals a return to levels nearer to the national rate. It remains to be seen how pricing will be affected by rising interest rates and changes in U.S. trade policy going forward, the pollsters said.

In line with the Utah’s 2.6 percent year-over-year CPI inflation, Money magazine recently listed Utah as one of the top 10 states for real income, based on residents’ purchasing power and median income.

“Utah continues to be one of the best places in the country to live and do business,” said Scott Andersen, president of Zions Bank. “Utah’s healthy economic environment is a sign of the industry of its residents and their eye toward building for the future.”

Although transportation was the main factor in March’s CPI decrease, the food-at-home and clothing categories also contributed:

                • Clothing prices decreased 1.3 percent from February mainly due to falling prices for children’s apparel.

                • Food-at-home prices fell 1.1 percent from February due to price decreases for meat and poultry.

                Price increases in the housing and restaurant sectors nearly offset the decreases in the other sectors:

                • Full-service meals drove the majority of the 1.2 percent increase in food-away-from-home prices.

                • Housing prices increased 1 percent due to increases in furniture prices and hotel and motel rates.

“Utah will continue to become more and more of a hub for both people and business as the quality of life statewide continues to increase,” said Randy Shumway, chairman and partner at Cicero Group, a Salt Lake City market research firm that does data collection and analysis for the CPI. “People are attracted by both the state’s healthy business environment as well as its growing opportunities for recreation.”{/mprestriction}