Bacon keeps getting more expensive - it now costs 13% more than last year, government data shows

The price of bacon rose 13% year-on-year in May.

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• Bacon is way more expensive than it was a year ago.
• The price of bacon has jumped 13% year-on-year, BLS data shows, and it rose 1.8% between April and May.
• The consumer price index was up 5%, but signals suggest an inflation slowdown could be coming.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Bacon is now 13% more expensive than a year ago, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

And it's not just shoppers facing higher prices: The owner of Burger King and Popeyes says prices for its key ingredients, including bacon, are rising, according to an internal report viewed by Bloomberg News.

The cost of bacon rose 1.8% between April and May, according to BLS data - this was a slower increase than March to April, when bacon prices jumped 3.4%.

Supply shortages and rising costs of pig feed were making pork products more expensive, Jayson L. Lusk, head of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Perdue, told the "Today" program in April.

The cost of other household staples has risen sharply, too. Over the past year, whole milk prices have risen 7.2%, beer 2.4%, and cigarettes 7.6%, the BLS data showed.

Whiskey has also climbed 3.7% in the past year, BLS data showed. It rose 0.7% from April to May, having fallen 0.2% in the previous month.

The overall consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.6% from April to May, and has surged 5% in the past year.

The monthly CPI jump was due mostly to a 7.3% rise in the cost of used cars and trucks, which accounted for about one-third of the seasonally-adjusted all items increase. Gasoline prices surged 56.2%, and car and truck rentals grew by 110% year-on-year.

As Insider's Juliana Kaplan and Andy Kiersz reported, multiple under-the-radar signals suggest an inflation slowdown could be coming.

The 5% year-on-year inflation was the strongest since August 2008, and beat economists' expectations. But annual price rises are measured against an unusually low base in May 2020, when most of the country was in lockdown.

The BLS figures showed that food away from home rose by 4% year-on-year. Restaurants are putting up the prices of menu items due to rising food costs and a labor shortage.

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