But convergence in the north-central part of the Midwest is slower. Followed by this job.
Figure 1: CPI – food at home nationwide (bold blue), February ERS forecast (light blue square), Midwest B/C cities (beige), Northeast Central (green). Midwest and East North Central series seasonally adjusted using X-13. The NBER has defined the peak to trough dates of the recession in gray. Source: BLS, ERS and author’s calculations.
Home food prices rose faster than the overall CPI, both nationally and in the Midwest. However, convergence happened faster nationally (most of the time my overall CPI increased faster).
Figure 2: Log ratio of CPI – food at home to overall national CPI (bold blue), for East-North Central (green). Center-East-North series seasonally adjusted using X-13. The NBER has defined the peak to trough dates of the recession in gray. Source: BLS and author’s calculations.
