For the second year in a row, Phoenix-area inflation came in milder than that for the nation as a whole.
Prices for goods and services around metro Phoenix increased 1.6% in 2024, below the 2.9% advance for the Consumer Price Index nationally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
In 2023, Phoenix-area inflation also was relatively tame, with a 2.7% rate that year, below the 4.1% number for the U.S.
In fact, Phoenix-area prices eased 0.8% over the final two months of 2024, pointing to a rare deflationary trend, helped by declining gasoline prices.
For all of 2024, food prices increased 1.8% around metro Phoenix. Restaurant meals advanced 3.4% but food consumed at home rose just 0.7%
Gasoline cost 4.7% less at the end of 2024 compared to the beginning of the year, the BLS said, and energy prices overall were down 1%. Natural gas services plunged 15.3%, but electricity became 6.2% more expensive.
Metro Phoenix had one of the nation’s highest inflation rates in 2022 at 9.5%, when the CPI reading for the nation hit 8%, on the heels of pandemic-related disruptions. However, a series of Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes in the aftermath have helped to cool pricing pressures.
“Inflation improved meaningfully in 2024, although it did not slow enough to meet the Fed’s target or satisfy consumers weary from the big cumulative price increases of the last few years,” said Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank.
He predicts uncertain progress in further taming inflation in 2025, especially if president-elect Trump succeeds in raising tariffs, and costs, on a range of imported products.
Nationally, housing/shelter prices rose 4.6% in 2024, medical care increased 3.4% and food overall advanced 2.5%. But gasoline came in 3.4% less expensive, prices for new cars and trucks dropped 0.4% and used vehicles fell 3.3%
Reach the writer at russ.wiles@arizonarepublic.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix-area inflation eased in 2024, lagged U.S. average