Wednesday, May 15, 2024

The Seasonally Adjusted CPI Was up 0.31% in April

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 313.207 in April and 312.230 in March. Since 313.207/312.230 = 1.0031, that means it was up 0.31% in Feb. If we had that every month for 12 months it would be up 3.82%.

It was 303.032 in April 2023. Since 313.207/303.032 = 1.0336, that means it was up 3.36% over the last 12 months.

The non-seasonally adjusted CPI was 313.548 in April and 303.363 in April 2023. That was up 3.36% also. 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 was 2.7% higher in March 2024 than March 2023).

For more information, see Inflation eases in April with consumer prices rising 3.4% from a year ago by Jeff Cox of CNBC. Excerpts:

"Inflation eased slightly in April, providing at least a bit of relief for consumers while still holding above levels that would suggest a cut in interest rates is imminent.

The consumer price index, a broad measure of how much goods and services cost at the cash register, increased 0.3% from March, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Services reported Wednesday. That was slightly below the Dow Jones estimate for 0.4%.

On a 12-month basis, however, the CPI increased 3.4%, in line with expectations.

Excluding food and energy, the key core inflation reading came in at 0.3% monthly and 3.6% on an annual basis, both as forecast. The core 12-month inflation reading was the lowest since April 2021."

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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