June 9, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Prices for apparel declined in 1998
Apparel prices paid by consumers fell by 0.7 percent in 1998.
It was the third time in five years that apparel prices dropped.
[Chart data—TXT]
In addition to falling in1998, apparel prices decreased in 1994 and 1996. As a result,
consumers actually paid 1.4 percent less for apparel in December 1998 than they did
five years earlier. In contrast, prices for commodities as a whole were 7.7 percent higher
at the end of 1998 than in December 1993.
The 0.7-percent decline in the price index for apparel in 1998 followed a rise of 1.0
percent in the previous year. In comparison, the index for all commodities rose by 0.4
percent in 1998, after increasing by 0.2 percent in 1997.
These data are produced by the BLS Consumer Price Index
program. More information on consumer price changes can be found in "Consumer inflation remains modest in
1998," Monthly Labor Review, April 1999. Annual percent changes are
December-to-December changes.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
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