As WPI reported last week, inflation – particularly food inflation – has been ensconced in the 2024 election campaign. The USDA released its food inflation series today, showing a trend through the end of last year that mirrors what BLS data on the CPI showed for July. Retail food inflation for food at home has slowed at 1.1 percent, while food service/food away from home inflation is still hot at 4.1 percent. Averaged out, total food inflation is at 2.2 percent.

For food away from home, full service food was up 3.8 percent and limited service food was up 4.3 percent, showing some signs of consumers economizing as they return to food away from home purchases.  In the bigger picture, relative to monetary policy, July&rsq...