Food To Inflate Less in '09

Food costs are expected to ease in 2009, having lately seen inflation levels not experienced in almost two decades. The good news for restaurant operators is that prices of corn, wheat and soybeans are plummeting from their historic highs.

"Spikes in commodity costs can take six months to work their way from the farm to store shelves, economists said. That means food inflation should retreat in 2009, but not necessarily back to the levels consumers were used to seeing, agricultural economists said.

Meanwhile, long-term trends that have been pushing food prices higher—growing global demand and an increasing flow of grains to fuel production—may hibernate a bit as the world's economy slows. But don't expect them to go away, economists said."

The bad news is that despite falling commodity prices, food prices as a whole will still go up. An economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Ephraim Leibtag, estimates the consumer price index for food will only increase by 4 percent compared to the 6 percent growth of late. That's still above the long-term annual rates of 2 to 3 percent.

Read the full article at the Chicago Tribune