November 2024: Pet Food Inflation Continuing to Decline

John Gibbons of PetBusinessProfessor.com reported a notable increase in November 2024’s year-over-year (YOY) “petflation” to 2.9%, up from October’s 2.0%. This rise follows a rare price drop of -0.3% between October and November, an occurrence seen only six times since 1997. However, the 2.9% rate remains below the long-term average of 3.1%.

The broader U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose slightly to 2.7% in November, showing a significant decline from the peaks of 2022 but still exceeding the Federal Reserve’s 2% target by over 30%. Pet food prices showed minimal monthly change (+0.1% vs. October) but experienced a YOY decline of -1.2%, reflecting a gradual stabilization following steep increases in 2022 and 2023. Pet food prices, influenced by producer price index trends, have stabilized significantly since March 2023, showing only a 0.84% increase over 20 months. Retail prices for other pet food categories dropped significantly, down -9.1% YOY.