July 7, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Price of fun falls

In recent years, fun has become cheaper as the prices paid by consumers for toys and sporting goods have dropped.

[Chart data—TXT]

Sporting goods prices have fallen for five years in a row, from 1995 to 1999. The latest drop was the largest of the five at 3.0 percent. Prices for sporting goods were 4.5 percent lower in 1999 than five years earlier.

Toy prices have declined for three years in a row—by 1.6 percent in 1997, 6.1 percent in 1998, and 8.0 percent in 1999. Toy prices in 1999 were 15 percent below their level of three years earlier.

These data are produced by the BLS Consumer Price Index program. More information on consumer price changes can be found in "Core consumer prices in 1999: low by historical standards," by Todd Wilson, Monthly Labor Review, April 2000. Annual percent changes are December-to-December changes.