The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food price indexes and data collection

This article describes the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on price changes for food categories within the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics import/export price indexes, producer price indexes, and consumer price indexes. In addition, the article assesses the pandemic’s impact on price data collection efforts. Safety precautions established during the pandemic created data collection challenges for some price indexes more than others. In March 2020, the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the actions taken in response to it drastically shifted food consumption from restaurants to homes as stay-at-home orders went into effect. At the same time, collecting price data became more difficult; first, stores and businesses closed, and second, Bureau of Labor Statistics data (BLS) collectors stopped in-person data collection. Despite the reduction in collected price quotes, BLS successfully maintained the quality of the broad price indexes while excluding very few detailed price indexes from publication.