LETTER: Shrinkflation note being counted in CPI

In his Wednesday letter, Anthony Palmer writes that Social Security recipients (and federal retirees) are being cheated on their benefits by inaccurate inflation measurements. Mr. Palmer is spot-on.

Mr. Palmer refers to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the cost-of-living adjustment based thereon. The biggest component of the CPI is food. What has skewed the computation on food is shrinkflation, the process of reducing the volume of a package while the price remains the same. This is a major increase in price per ounce that is not recognized.

During an interview with The Washington Post at the height of COVID, a Biden appointee indicated that shrinkflation could no longer be factored into the equation because it was too hard to gather data. While that approach may help the president’s inflation record, it will cheat needy retirees out of their retirement income, and that loss will compound every year.