Ground beef cost $3.085 per lb. in July, up from $3.007 in June. Before June, the average cost of 100 percent ground beef in the US had never gone above $3.00.
For the first month BLS tracked the price off 100 percent ground beef, January 1984, the price totaled $1.29 per lb. The average price for 1 lb. of 100 percent ground beef did not increase as much as overall inflation between 1984 and 2009. In January 2009, when President Barack Obama was inaugurated, it totaled $2.357 per lb.
Meanwhile, the average price for 1 lb. of 100 percent ground chuck hit a record $3.449 in July – up from $1.821 in January 1980 (when BLS started tracking it) and $2.961 per lb. in January 2009, when Obama took office.
Since January 2009, the price of ground chuck has outpaced overall inflation. Had it tracked overall inflation, it would be $3.16 per lb. now instead of approximately $3.45 per lb.
In 1991, the BLS began tracking the price of lean and extra lean ground beef. Between then and January 2009, its price increased at the same rate as overall inflation, increasing from $2.184 per lb. to $3.426. The average price for 1 lb. of lean or extra-lean ground beef has outpaced overall inflation – rising from$3.426 per lb. to $4.118 per lb., since January 2009.
