US food spending as a share of income hits highest in more than 30 years

According to data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Americans are spending the highest percentage of disposable income on food since the 1990s as a result of sky-high inflation under President Joe Biden.

Average consumer spending on food rose to 11.3% of their disposable personal income in 2022, seconds to the USDA. The share of disposable income spent on food is at its highest level since 1991, during George HW Bush's tenure, when it stood at 11.4%, and was still down from significant increases seen during the 1970s. seconds in the Wall Street Journal.

Food prices at home rose by around 5% on average in 2023 year-on-year, up from an 11.4% increase the previous year, compared to the average annual increase over the past 20 years of 2.5% seconds to the USDA. Prices of fats and oils, sugar and sweets, and cereals and bakery products had the largest increase in 2023, while prices of pork, fish and shellfish and fruits and fresh vegetables were less susceptible to price increases.

Headline inflation under Biden has risen quickand since the beginning of his term, which reached a maximum of 9.1% year-on-year in June 2022, and so far has not been able to fall back below 3% since then, the last measure of the 3, 1% in January. Salaries have failed to keep up with high inflation, falling by around 4% when taking into account the decline in average weekly hours worked.

Surprised at the grocery store checkout???

Here's why.

Food inflation is massive and real. After decades of declining food prices as a % of family budgets, they are now rising.#Bidenomics https://t.co/3fZ34lBvDJ pic.twitter.com/MJztHowNoI

— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) February 21, 2024

Biden has placed guilt on corporations to raise prices, including calling on companies for deflation, which is the practice of reducing the size of products to maintain the same price level. Businesses typically engage in deflation to adjust for rising product production costs while avoiding price increases, as consumers are less likely to notice size changes than price changes.

According to the WSJ, many prominent restaurants such as Denny's and Wendy's saw the number of guests drop in 2023 compared to the previous year as consumers looked to reduce spending on food. Food makers such as Hershey and Kraft Heinz also reported sales declines in 2023 as their prices rose rapidly amid high inflation.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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