Inflation eased a bit in the Bay Area in February, offering a ray of hope for consumers who have been battered by fast-rising prices — but the cost of electricity provided by utilities such as PG&E zoomed higher.
Consumer prices rose 2.4% in the Bay Area last month compared to February 2023, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday.
While that annual increase was relatively tame compared with the soaring yearly costs of recent years, Bay Area consumer prices today are far higher than two or three years ago.
The current prices are 7.8% higher than they were two years ago and they are 13.4% above the levels of three years ago, in February 2021, statistics posted on the federal labor agency’s website show.
Over the most recent one-year period, electric utility prices in the Bay Area soared higher by an eye-popping 29.8%. This segment of the consumer price index equates to the cost of the electricity services charged by PG&E in this region.
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Put another way, the cost of electricity delivered in this region by utilities such as PG&E is rising more than 12 times faster than the overall inflation rate in the Bay Area.
Natural gas costs, however, decreased sharply. The cost of natural gas piped into the home by utilities such as PG&E plunged 12.9% in February over the one year.
Several key consumer price items rose over the last year by less than the inflation rate in the Bay Area.
Food consumed at home, as well as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, fruit, vegetables and dairy products all rose by less than the Bay Area’s overall inflation.
Unleaded gasoline prices fell 2.7% over the one-year period that ended in February.