Wal-Mart Stores on Feb. 18 reported a 2 percent decline in U.S. same-store sales in the quarter ending in January due largely to falling prices for food and electronic goods.

In its grocery segment, prices declined 0.9 percent, a 6.9 percentage point swing from the previous year. Consumer electronics, meanwhile, have seen significant price declines for the last two years.

Eduardo Castro-Wright, Wal-Mart’s head of U.S. operations, said in a conference call that he expects food deflation to abate by the beginning of the company’s second fiscal quarter, which starts in May.

On Feb. 16, Thomas Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, said hyperinflation in the United States isn’t outside the realm of possibility.

• Wal-Mart earnings release
• Hoenig speech