Computer and electronics prices keep going down, says Adobe

Now might be a great time to upgrade that old laptop with the broken Shift key.

Online prices for computers are down more than 12% year-over-year, according to the latest data from Adobe’s Digital Price Index, and prices are falling at a faster rate than they were before the pandemic. Computer prices saw their biggest drop since March 2020 in Adobe’s report for August—which was released today—marking 20 consecutive months of falling prices for the category.

The news was similarly rosy for the electronics category, where prices are down more than 10% compared to the same point last year. Adobe says online prices for electronics have been dropping since late last year and have fallen even more significantly in recent months.

The data comes as the federal government is preparing to release its monthly Consumer Price Index report, which will offer a fuller picture of our inflation woes ahead of the Fed’s big policy meeting next week, when another rate hike is expected.

Unfortunately, the rest of Adobe’s report is not nearly as uplifting. Online prices for apparel, groceries, and personal-care products were all pointing in the wrong direction, and the report overall showed that prices were up 14.1% year over year and 1.1% month over month. Fourteen of the 18 categories tracked by Adobe saw month-over-month increases, with consumers especially feeling the pain in their grocery budgets.

“The modest uptick we see in online prices for August was driven in large part by rising food costs that show no signs of abating,” Patrick Brown, Adobe’s vice president of growth marketing and insights, said in a statement.