Food Price Changes--U.S. And Foreign

Excerpts from the report: Although retail food and average consumer prices in the United States have risen gradually since 1958, the rates of increase have been much less than those in most other countries. Between 1958 and 1965, retail food prices in the United States increased 7 percent, slightly less than the increase for the entire Consumer Price Index which rose by 9 percent. The increase in food prices in the United States contrasted sharply with price increases in Argentina and Brazil, two countries that experienced hyperinflation. Since 1958, food price increases in Argentina (up 700 percent) and Brazil (up 2,000 percent) outpaced the rise in their CPI's and were far above those reported by any other country. Other countries which experienced substantial food price increases included Yugoslavia, Spain, China-Taiwan, Japan, India, Philippines, Finland, and Sweden. Countries with only slightly more of an increase in their food prices than the United States since 1958 included Honduras, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Canada, and France. At least three countries--Ceylon, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia--reported a slower rise in food prices than the United States. Over the 1958-65 period, food prices increased only 1 percent in Ceylon and 3 percent in Hungary; Czechoslovakia reported a 2-percent drop between 1958 and 1964.