Transportation leads largest CPI drop in 3 years

The cost of transportation includes the price of both gasoline and vehicles and both took a slide in February. Local transportation costs fell 3.6 percent last month, leading to the largest one-month drop in consumer prices in over three years. The Zions Bank Wasatch Front Consumer Price Index (CPI) fell 0.5 percent from January to February, the biggest month-to-month drop in 39 months. {mprestriction ids="1,3"}

In the past 12 months, the CPI has grown 3.9 percent, while the national Consumer Price Index has increased 1.5 percent.

Gasoline prices — the primary contributor to the falling CPI — are at their lowest point since December 2016. The drop in overall transportation costs is the largest since last March.

“The decrease in gas prices has ripple effects in the economy as shipping and transportation costs decrease,” said Randy Shumway, chairman and partner at Cicero Group, a Salt Lake City research firm that does data collection and analysis for the CPI.  “Overall goods prices tend to become cheaper as transportation costs decrease.”

Housing and recreation costs both inched up in February, by 0.3 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively.  Both housing and medical care prices have experienced large year-over-year leaps, with housing prices increasing 8.3 percent and medical care prices growing 11.7 percent since February 2018. Comparatively, transportation prices saw their first year-over-year drop since April 2017, ticking down 1.6 percent.

“The average Utahn spends 38.7 percent of their monthly expenditure on housing costs, which is the highest percentage measured since July 2010,” Shumway said. “The clearest cause remains Utah’s strong and steady job market.” 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that Utah’s 12-month job growth has been higher than 3 percent every January since 2014. And unemployment, similarly, has stayed below 4 percent since March 2014.{/mprestriction}