Metro-area consumer prices continue climb

Prices in the metropolitan area last month climbed modestly, with the cost of gasoline and medical care rising the most.

The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday its consumer price index rose 2.8 percent in January compared with January 2011 in the 31- county region that includes Long Island. The index had climbed 2.7 percent in December 2011, year over year.

Month over month, prices were up 0.4 percent last month compared with December 2011. That was the first monthly gain since last fall.

Higher prices for prescription drugs, hospital and nursing home stays and foods such as chicken, cheese and condiments were responsible for the index increases, said Denis McSweeney, acting regional commissioner for the federal Department of Labor, which overseas the statistics bureau.

The cost of metro area health care was up 5.5 percent in January compared with a year earlier. That's the biggest year-over-year rise since 2007.

Grocery prices, year over year, were up 4.6 percent in January.

Gasoline cost 9.8 percent more last month than a year earlier. Pump prices, month over month, climbed 2.8 percent in January, breaking a streak of seven consecutive monthly drops.

Outside the Aldi supermarket in Bay Shore on Friday, some shoppers were dismayed by the high cost of medicine and grocery staples.

"I buy here because I need to make my Social Security go further," said Ella Fairbanks, a retiree from Islip. "The price of everything seems to be going up and up. I cannot afford all of my medicines."

Excluding food and energy, the regional price index rose 2.6 percent in the past year.

The national index increased 2.9 percent in January year over year.

Ryan Wang, an economist at HSBC Securities USA, predicted year-over-year increases in the national index would "drift a bit lower towards 1.9 percent by the end of the year."

Separately Friday, the state Taxation and Finance Department released data for last month about shopping activity on Long Island. January sales-tax receipts gained 1.2 percent in Nassau County from a year earlier and were up 1.4 percent in Suffolk County.