(NewsNation) — After years of elevated inflation, the outlook heading into 2026 is anything but straightforward.

Thursday’s final inflation report of 2025 showed consumer prices rising at a better-than-expected 2.7% annual rate in November — but it also highlighted a split picture on affordability.

Egg prices have fallen sharply from earlier highs this year, and drivers are seeing relief at the gas pump. At the same time, electric bills have kept climbing, while the cost of staples including coffee and beef has surged.

President Donald Trump’s tariffs have added pressure to goods prices, but overall inflation so far has risen less than many economists initially feared, in part because businesses built up inventories ahead of the levies.

Federal Reserve policymakers have said they expect the tariff impact on inflation to show up as a largely “one-time” increase in prices, rather than a sustained surge, with Fed Chair Jerome Powell suggesting goods inflation could peak in early 2026.

Here’s where food costs, power bills, and gas prices could be headed next year.

Food inflation expected to slow in 2026

• Food at home prices: +2.3% in 2026 (USDA forecast)
• Food away from home prices: +3.3% in 2026 (USDA forecast)

At the height of the inflation surge in summer 2022, food prices were up more than 11% from a year earlier.

Since then, food price growth has cooled to around 3%, and in 2026, the USDA expects increases to slow further, falling below the historical average.

That doesn’t mean relief will spread evenly across the grocery aisle. Some items are far more volatile than others. A bird flu outbreak sent egg prices soaring to $6.23 a dozen in March, though they’ve since fallen to $2.86 as supply improved.

Coffee and beef have been the other staples to watch, with both hitting record highs this year — though their paths could look very different in 2026.

Coffee prices may ease in 2026

Coffee prices are up about 19% from a year ago, according to the latest Consumer Price Index. That jump has been driven largely by weather-related challenges that have hampered production in major coffee-growing countries. Tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on imports from Brazil was another factor pushing prices higher.

With many of those tariffs now lifted, that particular drag has eased. World Bank projections see Arabica and Robusta prices coming down in 2026 as production improves following the extreme weather.

Ground beef could get more expensive

Beef and veal prices are up more than 15% from a year ago, and relief doesn’t appear to be coming anytime soon.

“We don’t have enough cattle, and it takes an extended amount of time to produce more,” Derrell Peel, an agricultural economist at Oklahoma State University, recently told Nexstar.

Nate Rempe, president and CEO of Omaha Steaks, said the U.S. cattle herd is at a 70-year low, even as demand remains strong.

“America is in for a bit of a long haul here, and we won’t really see material downward movement in price until late 2027,” Rempe told NewsNation’s parent company.

Power bills may keep rising in 2026

Electricity prices are up nearly 7% over the past year and close to 30% over the past four years, pushing power bills higher for many households. The cost of natural gas piped into homes has also climbed, rising more than 9% from a year earlier.

Why utility bills keep rising isn’t straightforward and varies by region. Higher natural gas prices, grid upgrades and rising electricity demand are all playing a role.

Much of the nation’s power grid is due for upgrades, from replacing aging infrastructure to weather-proofing against threats such as wildfires.

Adding capacity is also a priority, driven in part by the rapid build-out of energy-hungry data centers. In 2023, data centers consumed about 4% of total U.S. electricity, but that share could grow to as much as 12% by 2028, according to the Energy Department.

Natural gas, the largest source of electricity generation, has also become more expensive, with the U.S. now the largest liquefied natural gas exporter in the world.

Rate increases are already working their way through the system. As of early October, at least 210 U.S. gas and electric utilities had either raised rates or proposed increases to go into effect within the next two years, according to an analysis from the left-leaning Center for American Progress and Natural Resources Defense Council.

Gas prices could go even lower in 2026

Gas prices have fallen below $2.90 a gallon nationwide, making this the cheapest December at the pump since the end of 2020, according to AAA. In Oklahoma, Arkansas, Iowa and Colorado, the average is under $2.50.

A combination of lower crude oil costs, strong refinery output and softer seasonal demand has helped drive prices down in recent months — and 2026 could see more of the same.

The latest projections from the Energy Information Administration show global oil inventories rising next year, putting downward pressure on prices. The agency expects a gallon of regular gasoline to average about $3.00 in 2026, down from $3.11 in 2025 and more than 50 cents lower than in 2023.

U.S. crude oil production has kept climbing in recent years, rising under both the Biden and Trump administrations and hitting a record 13.84 million barrels per day in September.

“The outlook still looks terrific for motorists next year,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis GasBuddy, said in a recent Fox Business interview. “I do think that 2026 will bring yet another year of a decline in gas prices.”