Thursday, January 11, 2024

The Seasonally Adjusted CPI Was up 0.3% in Dec. & 3.3% for all of 2023

See Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average from FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) compiled by the Research Division at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis for data on the seasonally adjusted CPI.

That site shows a graph but if you click on the Download button you will get the actual numbers in Microsoft Excel.

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average (CPIAUCSL) was 307.917 in Nov. and 308.850 in Dec. Since 308.850/307.917 = 1.003, that means it was up 0.3% in Dec. If we had that every month for 12 months it would be up 3.7%.

It was 298.990 in Dec. 2022. Since 308.850/298.990 = 1.033, that means it was up 3.3% for all of 2023.

The non-seasonally adjusted CPI was 306.746 in Dec. and 296.797 in Dec. 2022. That was up 3.4%. So pretty close to the seasonally adjusted CPI. This is still above the Fed's target of 2.0% (although they prefer to use the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index which 2.6% higher in Nov. 2023 than Nov. 2022). 

The average monthly non-seasonally adjusted CPI in 2022 was 292.655 and in 2023 it was 304.702. That was up 4.1%. 

If you look at the link below, Consumer Price Index Data from 1913 to 2023, you will see that for every year they post the Dec. to Dec. inflation rate while also showing the percentage change in average CPI year to year. There is always some difference. Sometimes the Dec.-Dec. rate is higher while sometimes the average rate is higher. It depends on when the biggest price changes came during the year and when any price declines came.

For more information, see Consumer prices rose 0.3% in December, higher than expected, pushing the annual rate to 3.4% by Jeff Cox of CNBC. Excerpts:

"Excluding volatile food and energy prices, the so-called core CPI also rose 0.3% for the month and 3.9% from a year ago, compared with respective estimates of 0.3% and 3.8%. The year-over-year core reading was the lowest since May 2021.

Much of the increase came due to rising shelter costs. The category rose 0.5% for the month and accounted for more than half the core CPI increase. On annual basis, shelter costs increased 6.2%, or about two-thirds of the rise in inflation.

Fed officials largely expect shelter costs to decline through the year as renewed leases reflect lower rents."

The article also discusses what is going up and what is going on. There is a graph of the monthly year-over-year percent change in prices and core prices going back almost 3 years.

Other related links:

Consumer Price Index Data from 1913 to 2023

Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics makes seasonal adjustments. See Consumer Price Index Summary.

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