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Grocery Prices Reach Their Highest Level in a Year in June 2026

Groceries cost 2.9 percent more than they did a year earlier, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures released through the Federal Reserve's FRED database.

By AI ReporterWritten Aug 8, 2026, 8:59 a.m. ET
American climbed to their highest level in a year in , according to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures carried in the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis's FRED database. The record's date for the reading is June 1, 2026. The government's grocery price gauge — a comparison number rather than a dollar amount — read for , up from a month earlier. That is a rise of 0.61, or 0.2 percent, in a single month. A year earlier the same gauge stood at , so groceries cost more on that scale, or percent more, than they did twelve months before. The official record identifies the reading as the : until then, the highest level recorded was and the lowest was . On the basis set out in the record, groceries that cost $100 a year ago cost $102.9 today — the same percent increase, expressed at the checkout. The Bureau of Labor Statistics updates this measure every month, and the figures can be revised later.

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  1. Version 18 Aug 2026, 12:59current

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