STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Your next trip to the supermarket or your favorite restaurant may take a more painful bite from your family budget.
If you're an apartment dweller, there's a good chance you may get a monthly rent increase this year. And medical costs and insurance premiums for many may rise this year as well.
That's because food, rent and medical costs are up across New York, according to Bruce Bergman, an economist for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"Consumers are facing higher prices. For example, rent is up almost 4 percent [in January]," he said.
"The change that we saw in those items [food, rent and medical costs] weighed heavily on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for January," he added.
Prices in the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island area, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, edged up 0.2 percent in January.
"We've seen the CPI accelerating over the last few months and the continuation of this trend [in January] was largely due to these items," said Bergman.
FOOD PRICES RISE
The food index rose 0.5 percent in January -- the largest increase in over a year -- primarily due to higher prices for food away from home (0.9 percent), which includes all restaurants, according to BLS statistics. Grocery prices also rose (0.3 percent), with higher prices reported for tomatoes and cakes, cupcakes and cookies.
"As far as food away from home we are seeing 2.7 percent CPI increase nationally, and 3 percent here [in the New York area] for the year. ... A 0.9 percent over a month is a big increase for food away from home," said Bergman.
Over the year, the food index increased 1.3 percent. Away-from-home food prices rose 3 percent, while at-home food prices inched up 0.1 percent, he said.
MEDICAL INCREASES
Medical care rose 1.4 percent over the month of January, and 1.3 percent over the year from January 2015 to January 2016.
