The Price of This Household Item Is Falling, According to the Government

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Feb 19, 6:12AM EST

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

The Price of This Household Item Is Falling, According to the Government — © MultifacetedGirl / iStock via Getty Images

Is the rate of inflation rising or falling? Good question. The January consumer price index, a closely watched measure of inflation, was not encouraging. After several months in which the pace of increase in prices cooled, the CPI rose 6.4% year over year, only a slight decline from the previous month’s 6.5% rate. Further, compared to December, the CPI rose by 0.5%. Energy prices, which were more stable for months, surged again as did the prices of many other items. The price of smartphones, however, fell.

Inflation is often seen as tied to rising interest rates because the Federal Reserve tends to raise rates to combat inflation, and that has been the story for a year. As inflation rates rose above 8% year over year, the Fed took the route it usually does under these circumstances. It increased interest rates to dampen economic activity. (Here are countries with the lowest gas prices in the world at the start of 2023.)

Up until the January CPI, the rate hikes appeared to be working. Following the significant interest rate hikes last year, the Fed’s leadership said it would take its foot off the interest rate pedal. With the recent CPI report and retail sales rebounding in January, the Fed may continue on its previous course. (Here is the price of a dozen eggs every year since 1973.)

There are some price soft spots in the economy, although they are rare. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the BLS’ Consumer Price Index Summary January report to find the items that have declined in price in January 2023 compared to January 2022. The prices of only 17 items among the dozens considered in the CPI fell last month.

Smartphones topped this list of falling prices as they have for several months. These dropped 23% year over year. But smartphones and some other such products are special cases.

The CPI generally compares similar items, large eggs to large eggs for example. Smartphones, however, keep improving, and the newest models are often better versions of the previous year’s models. To reflect the technology improvements (better screen resolution for example), the BLS implements quality adjustments, discounting previous models to reflect their lower value. The drop in the CPI for smartphones, therefore, does not necessarily suggest that prices of smartphones are 23% lower than they were last year, but that the new smartphones provide 23% more value.

Click here to see the price of this household item is falling, according to the government.

17. Recreational books
> Price increase, January 2022 to January 2023: -0.3%

[in-text-ad]

16. Services by other medical professionals
> Price increase, January 2022 to January 2023: -0.4%

[recirclink id=1200357]

15. Uncooked beef roasts
> Price increase, January 2022 to January 2023: -0.5%

14. Boys’ apparel
> Price increase, January 2022 to January 2023: -1.0%

[in-text-ad-2]

13. Ship fare
> Price increase, January 2022 to January 2023: -1.9%

12. Transportation commodities less motor fuel
> Price increase, January 2022 to January 2023: -2.3%

[in-text-ad]

11. Computer software and accessories
> Price increase, January 2022 to January 2023: -2.9%

[recirclink id=1199450]

10. Uncooked beef steaks
> Price increase, January 2022 to January 2023: -3.0%

9. Bacon and related products
> Price increase, January 2022 to January 2023: -3.9%

[in-text-ad-2]

8. Women’s outerwear
> Price increase, January 2022 to January 2023: -4.0%

7. Women’s dresses
> Price increase, January 2022 to January 2023: -4.2%

[in-text-ad]

6. Computers, peripherals, and smart home assistants
> Price increase, January 2022 to January 2023: -6.2%

[recirclink id=1199406]

5. Education and communication commodities
> Price increase, January 2022 to January 2023: -10.3%

4. Used cars and trucks
> Price increase, January 2022 to January 2023: -11.6%

[in-text-ad-2]

3. Televisions
> Price increase, January 2022 to January 2023: -13.2%

2. Telephone hardware, calculators, and other consumer information items
> Price increase, January 2022 to January 2023: -17.4%

[in-text-ad]

1. Smartphones
> Price increase, January 2022 to January 2023: -23.9%

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.