Most New Yorkers may not have noticed their wallets bulging, but according to the federal Department of Labor, the cost of living in the New York metro area declined in the last year. Declined, as in went down — something prices in region, on the whole, had not done for more than half a century.

It may have been a fleeting condition, given that it was caused primarily by a big drop in the cost of energy, but the main measure of inflation in the region was ever-so-slightly lower in May than it had been in May 2008. Over that year, the Consumer Price Index for the city dipped by 0.1 percent, its first decline in any 12-month period since 1956.

The biggest factor by far in the dip was the fall in the price of gasoline and heating oil from the extraordinarily high levels they reached in the first half of 2008. Energy prices were almost 25 percent lower in May than they had been a year before, according to data compiled by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Other expenses that may weigh more heavily on the minds of most New Yorkers, like rent and food, rose in price over the last year. Rent rose 5.3 percent and the cost of food, consumed at home or in restaurants, was up 2.9 percent since last May, the bureau said.

“This may be a one-month anomaly, as gasoline prices are rising again,” said Michael Dolfman, the regional commissioner of labor statistics.

Falling gas prices also were a factor in 1956, the last time the region had a year of deflation, Mr. Dolfman said. But back then, he added, declining food prices and a drop in the cost of maintaining an automobile also contributed to the overall drop.

On a month-to-month basis, prices are already rising. The region’s Consumer Price Index was 0.2 percent higher in May than it had been in April, according to the bureau’s figures.

[Yeah, stole that from the New Yawk Times...which won't be free on the internet much longer]