Wednesday, February 12, 2025

The Seasonally Adjusted CPI Was up 0.467% in January and 2.87% for all of 2024

Here are the changes in the seasonally adjusted CPI each of the last six months:

Aug  0.1802%
Sep  0.2292%
Oct  0.2265%
Nov  0.2805%
Dec  0.3647% 
Jan  0.4669%
 
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 317.603 in Dec. and 319.086 in Jan. Since 319.086/317.603 = 1.00467, that means it was up 0.467%. If we had that every month for 12 months it would be up 5.75%.
 
It was 309.794 in Jan. 2024. Since 319.086/309.794 = 1.03, that means it was up 3.00% over the last 12 months. 
 
The non-seasonally adjusted CPI was 317.671 in Jan. and 308.417 in Jan. 2024. That was also up 3.00%. 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 2.6% higher in Nov. 2024 than Nov. 2023). 
 
For more information, see Consumer prices rise 0.5% in January, higher than expected as annual rate rises to 3% by Jeff Cox of CNBC. Excerpts:

"Inflation perked up more than anticipated in January, providing further incentive for the Federal Reserve to hold the line on interest rates.

The consumer price index, a broad measure of costs in goods and services across the U.S. economy, accelerated a seasonally adjusted 0.5% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 3%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. They were higher than the respective Dow Jones estimates for 0.3% and 2.9%. The annual rate was 0.1 percentage point higher than December.

Excluding volatile food and energy prices, the CPI rose 0.4% on the month, putting the 12-month inflation rate at 3.3%. That compared with respective estimates for 0.3% and 3.1%. The annual core rate also was up 0.1 percentage point from December."
The article also discusses what is going up and what is going down. There is a graph of the monthly year-over-year percent change in prices and core prices going back almost 4 years.
 
Other related links:
 
Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items Less Food and Energy in U.S. City Average (CPILFESL) This is also from from FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data), compiled by the Research Division at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. It has the seasonally adjusted core CPI.
 
 
 
The Bureau of Labor Statistics makes seasonal adjustments. See Consumer Price Index Summary.  

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