Consumers are being slapped with higher prices for home appliance as input costs soar and data released by the Labor Department on Wednesday revealed prices rose in July compared to the year before.
Prices of major appliances, including refrigerators, rose 12.3% in July compared to the year before, the Labor Department reported Wednesday, noting that its consumer price index (CPI) rose 5.4% year over year last month, matching the prior month’s gain as the fastest since August 2008.
According to CPI data, the price for appliances overall rose 4.9% in July compared to 2020 and laundry equipment increased by 17.9%.
“This is the first year where we had such a big dramatic change,” Metin Ozkuzey, the president of Designer Appliances, an appliance store in Montclair, N.J., told FOX Business’ Lydia Hu.
Ozkuzey noted that costs for things like raw materials have increased and that “production issues” have contributed to the rise as well.
He also pointed out that the distribution of appliances has created challenges as well and now “getting a product from point A to point B is dramatically more expensive.”
