Wednesday, March 12, 2025

The Seasonally Adjusted CPI Was up 0.216% in February

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

Sep  0.2292%
Oct  0.2265%
Nov  0.2805%
Dec  0.3647% 
Jan  0.4669%
Feb 0.2160%
 
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 319.775 in Feb. and 319.086 in Jan. Since 319.775/319.086 = 1.00216, that means it was up 0.216%. If we had that every month for 12 months it would be up 2.62%.
 
It was 311.022 in Feb. 2024. Since 319.775/311.022 = 1.0281, that means it was up 2.81% over the last 12 months.
 
The non-seasonally adjusted CPI was 319.082 in Feb. and 310.326 in Feb. 2024. That was up 2.82%. 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 2.5% higher in Jan. 2025 than Jan. 2024).  
 
For more information, see Inflation rate eased to 2.8% in February, lower than expected by Jeff Cox of CNBC. Excerpts: 
"Prices for goods and services moved up less than expected in February, providing some relief as consumers and businesses worry about the looming impact tariffs might have on inflation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday.

The consumer price index, a wide-ranging measure of costs across the U.S. economy, ticked up a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.8%, according to the Labor Department agency. The all-item CPI had increased 0.5% in January.

Excluding food and energy prices, the core CPI also rose 0.2% on the month and was at 3.1% on a 12-month basis, the lowest reading since April 2021. The core CPI had climbed 0.4% in January."

The article also discusses what types of products are going up in price 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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