What Is the Consumer Price Index?

Illustration of why the consumer price index is important.
Photo:

The Balance / Emilie Dunphy

Definition

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a monthly measurement of U.S. prices for household goods and services. It reports inflation (rising prices) and deflation (falling prices). Both can hurt a healthy economy.

Key Takeaways

  • The Consumer Price Index measures and reports inflation and deflation in the economy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates the CPI and publishes percentage change month ov
  • The Fed uses the CPI to help determine whether to modify economic policies to prevent inflation.
  • There was a decrease of 0.1% in the index from November to December, in line with economists' expectations. The CPI increased by 6.5%, from December 2021.

Definition and an Example of CPI Calculation

The CPI is the measurement used by economists for tracking price changes in a typical "basket" of goods and services that urban consumers buy. The Federal Reserve monitors price changes to ensure economic growth remains stable. The Federal Reserve uses monetary policy tools to intervene if it detects too much inflation or deflation.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) computes the CPI by taking the average weighted cost of a basket of goods in a given month and dividing it by the weighted cost of the same basket the previous month. It then multiplies this percentage by 100 to get the number for the index.

The equation works like this:

CPI formula
  • Alternate Name: CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U)
  • Acronym: CPI

Note

The terms CPI and inflation are often used interchangeably because inflation is the percentage increase or decrease of CPI over a certain period of time.

How the CPI Works

The Consumer Price Index represents the prices of a cross-section of goods and services commonly bought by urban households. This cross-section represents around 93% of the U.S. population, and it factors in a sample of 14,500 families and 80,000 consumer prices.

Housing (called "shelter" by the BLS) is the highest weighted category within the CPI calculation. Shelter uses the concept of "owner's equivalent of primary residence" (OER), which is how much homeowners would charge to rent their home unfurnished, without utilities. The BLS surveys homeowners in multiple urban areas every year to gather this information, replacing one-sixth of the data every year.

The CPI could give a false low inflation reading due to low rents, even when home prices are high. Low rents can result from fewer renters and increased vacancies, as low interest rates spur more home purchases. At the same time, housing prices could rise due to increased market activity. This is why the CPI didn't warn of asset inflation during the housing bubble of 2005.

Note

Conversely, rising interest rates might lead to fewer buyers in the market and falling home prices. As more people compete for apartments, rents go up.

The CPI includes sales taxes. It excludes income taxes and the prices of investments, such as stocks and bonds.

The CPI measures two commodities with wild price swings: food and energy commodities (oil and gasoline). These products are traded constantly on the commodities market. Traders can bid prices up or down based on news such as wars in oil-producing countries or droughts. The CPI often reflects these price swings as a result.

The "core" CPI solves the problem of volatile food and energy prices by excluding them. The Fed has considered core CPI in the past when deciding whether to raise the fed funds rate (the interest rate for overnight loans between banks). The core CPI is useful because food, oil, and gas prices are volatile, and the Fed's tools are slow-acting.

How CPI Affects the Fed

The Fed uses the CPI to determine whether economic policies need to be modified to prevent inflation.

It uses contractionary monetary policy to slow economic growth when it recognizes that the rate of inflation is too high. It changes the fed funds rate to make loans more expensive, which tightens the money supply—the total amount of credit allowed into the market. Slowed growth and demand put downward pressure on prices. This returns the economy to a healthy growth rate of 2% to 3% a year.

Note

The BLS publishes a handy inflation calculator you can use to plug in the dollar value for any year from 1913 to the present. It will tell you what the dollar amount is or was worth for any of those years using the average CPI for that calendar year.

How CPI Affects Other Government Agencies

The federal government uses the CPI to improve benefit levels for recipients of Social Security and other government programs that provide financial assistance.

How CPI Affects Housing and Investments

Landlords use the CPI forecasts to determine future rent increases in contracts.

An increased CPI can depress bond prices, too. Fixed-income investments tend to lose value during inflation. Investors demand higher yields on these investments to make up for the loss in value as a result.

These yield demands can increase interest rates, which then increases costs for businesses borrowing money to expand. The net effect is a decrease in earnings, which could depress the stock market.

Examples

The U.S. inflation rate by year shows that fluctuations in CPI used to be much worse. Inflation hit 14.4% year-on-year in 1946. The next time it came close to that was 1974, when it hit 11.1% year-on-year while the economy contracted 0.5%. The economic condition where the inflation rate is rising and the economy is contracting is called "stagflation."

Deflation occurred between 1930 and 1933. Prices fell by 10.7% in September 1932 compared to September 1931. Congress had imposed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff two years earlier, which created a trade war that lowered prices and worsened the Great Depression.

Benefits of the CPI

The CPI measures the rate of inflation, which is one of the greatest threats to a healthy economy. Inflation eats away at your standard of living if your income doesn't keep pace with rising prices—your cost of living increases over time.

A high inflation rate can hurt the economy. Everything costs more, so manufacturers produce less and may be forced to lay off workers. The CPI allows us to gauge these factors.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the difference between the consumer price index and the GDP deflator?

The CPI attempts to measure the inflation felt by consumers, but the gross domestic product (GDP) deflator measures a wider range of inflationary effects. By accounting for the impact on institutions, such as governments, the GDP deflator makes year-to-year GDP comparisons more accurate.

Which U.S. government entity takes responsibility for computing and reporting the CPI?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) calculates and reports CPI data. The data that is used to compute CPI comes from the Census Bureau.

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Sources
The Balance uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
  1. Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Table 1. Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U): U.S. City Average, by Expenditure Category."

  2. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “BLS Handbook of Methods, Chapter 17. The Consumer Price Index (Updated 2-14-2018).” Page 4.

  3. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Consumer Price Index Frequently Asked Questions.”

  4. Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Consumer Price Index: Design."

  5. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Common Misconceptions About the Consumer Price Index: Questions and Answers.”

  6. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “How the CPI Measures Price Change of Owners’ Equivalent Rent of Primary Residence (OER) and Rent of Primary Residence (Rent).” Page 1.

  7. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “The So-called ‘Core’ Index: History and Uses of the Index for All Items Less Food and Energy.” Page 2.

  8. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. "Effective Federal Funds Rate-Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average."

  9. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. "What Is Inflation and How Does the Federal Reserve Evaluate Changes in the Rate of Inflation?"

  10. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. “Principles for the Conduct of Monetary Policy.”

  11. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “How to Use the Consumer Price Index for Escalation.”

  12. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "CPI-U."

  13. U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. "Table 1.1.1. Percent Change From Preceding Period in Real Gross Domestic Product."

  14. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. "Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average."

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