The price of your Thanksgiving dinner was much higher this year compared to what you’ve probably paid before. Economists expect that you’ll still be paying a lot more for your Christmas dinner as well.

Egg prices are up 50-percent over last year thanks to an outbreak of the Avian flu. Meat prices, particularly beef, are up a lot more as well thanks to a drought in Texas. Not to mention inflation in general is contributing to high food prices.

“Those cattle producers (in Texas) have actually had to buy more inputs, such as supplemental feeds and water to be able to maintain their herds,” said Dr. Shellye Suttles, an environmental economist at Indiana University.

She tells WISH-TV that food prices have been steadily climbing over the last year and a half.

It’s not clear how much longer food prices will stay high. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates a half-percentage point this week in an effort to reduce inflation. Economists like Dr. Michael Hicks at Ball State believe that even with raising interest rates we will not be able to avoid a recession in the next year because of it.

“We’re going to see less consumption of things like automobiles, recreational vehicles. Fewer people are going to buy homes,” Hicks said. “So there will be less pipes and electrical wires, washers and dryers. All together those end up affecting a state like ours a little bit worse.”

The less consumption will also have an effect on the state of Indiana’s bottom line with less tax money coming in.