20% Of NYers Aren't Concerned About Rising Food Prices: Poll

NEW YORK CITY — One in five New Yorkers are apparently rich enough to say rising food prices are NBD, according to a new poll.

Those "no big deal" New Yorkers were among roughly 800 surveyed in a Siena College poll released Friday.

The poll found that 80 percent of New Yorkers found food prices are a somewhat or very serious problem, leaving 20 percent who think otherwise.

Sky-high recent gas prices — which likely effect fewer New York City dwellers than state residents who live in places without widespread public transit — are another concern, according to the poll. Of those surveyed, 69 percent said gas prices are a somewhat or very serious problem.

"Gas prices have only hurt residents this dramatically in 2011 and 2008 and food has only taken this big of a bite out of us once in the last 15 years, July 2008," said Don Levy, the director of Siena College's Research Institute, in a statement.

The overall New York Index of Consumer Sentiment — a measure of confidence or pessimism in the economy — stands at 61.7, the lowest point since 2011, according to the poll.

But there is a silver lining, of sorts.

New Yorkers' overall confidence is higher than across the nation, where the index stands at 50.

Inflation has gripped the nation and world, including New York. In June, reached a 40-year high in the United States.

President Joe Biden and federal officials have tried to tackle inflation by, among other steps, raising interest rates. But the interest rate spike prompted concern that a recession could follow.

Among New Yorkers surveyed in the Siena poll, 63 percent said they view both gas and food prices as a somewhat or a very serious problem.

Read the full Siena College poll here.