The U.S. Department of Agriculture is projecting retail food prices will rise between 1 percent and 2 percent in 2019.
The USDA report in 2018, retail food prices rose just 0.4 percent. The modest increase was the first in three years, but still below the 20-year historical annual average of 2 percent.
In 2019, the USDA said retail food inflation may continue to remain low at the grocery store. If price rise by the predicted 1 percent to 2 percent, the USDA said it would be the fourth year in a row with deflating or lower-than-average inflating retail food prices.
The USDA said fresh fruit prices rose 1 percent in 2018, and economists expect fresh fruit prices to increase an additional 2 percent to 3 percent in 2019.
The USDA’s food price report said fresh vegetable prices rose 1.1 percent in 2018 and are expected to increase an additional 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent in 2019.