Your grocery bill is likely to go up within the next several months.
Companies like Clorox, Tyson, and Kellogg are weighing price hikes as the costs for raw materials, energy and transportation are rising. That's not all. More than a dozen S&P firms that sell consumer staples say they've increased the price or are willing to in order to counter an inflation spike.
“I expect we’ll see a blip in inflation because of that. I expect once supply has had to adjust, we’ll see food prices going back down a bit,” Retired UT Economics Professor Daniel Hamermesh said.
Many Americans are already seeing a higher grocery bill, as many companies are passing off rising commodity costs to consumers. Despite the challenge, Hamermesh is more optimistic about the overall U.S. economy in the long run.
“If nothing else, the markets are now open. People can go out and buy things,” he explained. “The inflation that is going to be short term in the next six months is far from what we saw over a much longer term in the late 70’s and early 80’s.”
In the meantime, concern over the recent inflation spike may end up costing the consumer. Several companies, like General Mills, are trying to hold off on price increases until the fourth quarter.