A federal agency has new, unpleasant data for many Hawaii consumers already suffering financially amid the state’s badly damaged economy: Prices have risen for most goods and services on Oahu.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its latest inflation report Tuesday for 87 major metropolitan areas, and it amounts to a double whammy for Hawaii, where the economy has been hurt more than the mainland this year while consumer prices for Honolulu have risen more than the national average.
Honolulu’s consumer price index is up 1.9% over 12 months through September compared with 1.4% nationally.
The increase locally was driven largely by the cost of food and beverages, which was up 7.8%, the BLS report said.
Honolulu’s food cost increase included a 9.6% hike for food at home and 5.2% more for food away from home.
Other things that cost more included housing, up 1.9%; education and communication, up 4.1%; and recreation, up 4.9%.
Partially offsetting more expensive items were three major necessities where prices decreased in the 12-month period. The price for electricity fell 11.3%, the price for gas fell 14.8% and the price for apparel fell 5.0%.
A price change for medical care was not calculated.
BLS said that many of its price indexes for items are based on a smaller sampling, while price indexes for some things were not published because work to collect data via personal visits has been suspended since March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Also, some establishments were closed, which has an effect on certain price indexes. For most goods and services, BLS collected pricing data online or by phone.
In the broadest measure of the state’s economy, the value of all Hawaii goods and services produced for sale, also known as gross domestic product, plummeted 42.2% during the April-June period, which was tied for the lowest in the nation with Nevada. However, factoring Hawaii’s 9% first-quarter GDP decline put the Aloha State at the bottom of the national barrel.
“We now have the distinction of having the weakest economy in the country,” Carl Bonham, executive director of the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, said Monday.
In terms of unemployment, BLS last month reported that Hawaii tied with New York for the third-worst rate in August at 12.5%, behind Nevada and Rhode Island at about 13%.