According to the U.S. Labor Department — its Bureau of Labor Statistics — electricity prices paid by the average American consumer were the same in February of this year as they were in February 2018. No change over the twelve months. Zilch. Nada.
Yet, prices paid by the average American consumer for all the goods and services he or she buys increased one and a half percent during those twelve months.
What does this difference mean between the change of zero for electricity and one and a half percent for all goods and services? Well, it means that electricity prices are decreasing inflation-adjusted.
Consumers may complain about how the prices of everything from health care to higher education is rising. But if they say that about electricity, they might check the numbers.
Average weekly earnings for Americans increased nearly three and a half percent during the twelve months of February 2018 to February 2019. That’s pretty good considering that the Consumer Price Index increased one and a half percent during the same period.
For much of the last few decades, average weekly earnings increased at a slower pace than the CPI. But the trend is no more, at least for now. We now have average weekly earnings increasing at a faster pace than the CPI.
And, during the same twelve months, average electricity prices didn’t increase at all.
Earnings up nearly three and a half percent, electricity prices up zero percent. Nice.