A 'ticking time bomb': Gas, groceries, cars all pricier as inflation takes toll on NJ

Inflation in North Jersey and the New York metropolitan area hit a 14-year high last month, according to new federal data, with sharp rises in everything from groceries to used cars and appliances — and more pain on the way as the Ukraine conflict sends fuel prices soaring.

While the regional increase fell short of the 40-year high recorded across the rest of the nation, prices in New Jersey still rose at their fastest rate since the Great Recession in 2008, when oil blew past $150 a barrel.

“For two years, everybody’s just been waiting for the green light to be able to go ahead and enjoy life again and living normally,” said Lynne Berry, 60, who lives in Mahwah and faces higher costs to care for a daughter with disabilities. “No sooner do the restrictions start to come off, and now all of a sudden gas is $4 a gallon. It just takes that little bit of hope.”

The consumer price index, a key indicator of inflation, rose 5.1% between February of 2021 and 2022 for the New York metro area, including northern and central New Jersey, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Thursday.

Nationally, the CPI jumped an annualized 7.9%, the fastest pace since 1982, as spiraling costs for rent, food and energy put the squeeze on Americans.

In South Jersey and the Philadelphia region, inflation was 7.8%, according to the Labor Department figures, the highest since 1990.

Higher prices are a "ticking time bomb" looming over the economy, said Tom Bracken, president of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce.

“People have money now because of what happened with the government assistance programs,” he said. “When does the intersection of money running out and inflation going up — when does that hit? And when that hits, that’s where the problems are going to be.”

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The summer travel season, which accounts for the bulk of economic activity for areas like the Jersey Shore, is just around the corner, Bracken noted.

Locally, home energy costs rose 16%, according to the BLS data. With the price of gasoline in New Jersey racing toward $4 a gallon in February, gas prices rose 37.5% year-over-year.

Other essentials got more expensive as well. The price of groceries rose 9.1%, the highest in 35 years, driven by a 17% rise in the costs of meat, poultry, seafood and eggs. Used cars and trucks got 42.7% pricier.

Inflation for durable goods — consumer products with a long lifespan, such as furniture, electronics, jewelry and appliances — was 18.2%.

Global supply chain bottlenecks caused by the COVID pandemic combined with rising demand from consumers to produce the worst inflation in generations over the past year.

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat, speaking at a February Senate Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, also accused American businesses of “hiding behind the headline inflation figures to justify raising their prices and profits on the backs of hardworking Americans."

Inflation may have been slower in the North Jersey region than in the rest of the nation, but that's likely because the New York area is "more expensive in general," said Monmouth University economist Robert Scott. "So inflation is slower to rise when prices are already high.”

The national figure is also more comprehensive than regional CPI measurements and so may miss some of the inflationary pressures, he added.

Some business owners said pent-up demand after two years of COVID-19 restrictions was offsetting rising costs.

“We’re seeing people fired up to come back out and to see their neighbors and to socialize and to have a family dinner like they used to,” said Craig Kunisch, who owns Mahwah Bar & Grill and a companion restaurant in Allendale.

But Christine Modica, co-owner of the Stag House salon and barbershop in Saddle River, said her customers have cut back on services like hair coloring, just like during the 2008 crash. Salons lost money, she said, and some had to put more stringent cancellation policies in place to stymie some of the losses.

More worrying are the months of supply chain issues and labor shortages and how they could barrel into whatever lies ahead, said Modica, who co-founded the New Jersey Salon and Spa Alliance during the early days of the state's COVID-19 restrictions.

“We went from like one tragedy to another,” she said.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ inflation rate: Gas, grocery prices at 14-year high