13. Which index is the "Official CPI" reported in the media?
Each month, BLS releases thousands of detailed CPI numbers to the media.
However the media usually focuses on the broadest, most comprehensive CPI.
This is "The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for the
U.S. City Average for All Items, 1982-84=100." These data are reported on
either a seasonally adjusted, or not seasonally adjusted, basis. Often,
the media will report some, or all, of the following:
the index level (for example, August 1999=167.1).
the 12-month percent change (for example, August 1998 to August 1999=2.3
percent).
the 1-month percent change on a seasonally adjusted basis (for example,
from July 1999 to August 1999=0.3 percent).
the annual rate of percent change so far this year (for example, from
December 1998 to August 1999 if the rate of increase over the first 8
months of the year continued for the full year, after the removal of
seasonal influences, the rise would be 3.1 percent).
the annual rate based on the latest seasonally adjusted 1-month change.
For example, if the July 1999 to August 1999 rate continued for a full 12
months, the rise, compounded, would be 3.7 percent.
On Tue, 9 Dec 2003, Jasjeet Singh Sekhon wrote:
They usually either report the year-on-year figure OR the
month-on-month figure and then annualize it to put it one the same
scale. I've seen it done both ways. I don't know which is more
common..... Jas.
Ian Yohai writes:
When the change in CPI is reported in the press
each month, do you happen to
know which number they report (i.e. month to month change or year on year
changes or some other method)?
Ian
-----Original Message-----
From: gov1000-list-admin(a)fas.harvard.edu
[mailto:gov1000-list-admin@fas.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Jasjeet Singh
Sekhon
Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2003 2:00 AM
To: Michael Richard Kellermann
Cc: jkline(a)fas.harvard.edu; gov1000-list(a)fas.harvard.edu
Subject: [gov1000-list] inflation series
Hi Mike,
Good question. I'm glad you asked--:)
The inflation series is based on the seasonally adjusted monthly cpi.
More specifically:
Consumer Price Index For All Urban Consumers:
All Items
1982-84=100, Seasonally Adjusted
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Given the CPI, there are various way one could calculate inflation.
One is based on month on month changes in the CPI. Another is based
on year on year changes in the cpi.
Year on year inflation: log(cpi t) - log(cpi t-12)
where t refers to the month. That's what you were given. An
alternative is month on month changes which would be:
month on month inflation: log(cpi t) - log(cpi t-1):
If you wish, I could post the data set with month on month
inflation. (all of the data is publicly available, but I have the
data sitting here so it is easy for me to post).
Note that a good place which collates all of this data is the FRED
database at the St. Louis Federal Reserve:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/
Cheers,
Jas.
Michael Richard Kellermann writes:
Hi -
Quick question: where does the inflation series in our dataset come from?
Cheers,
Mike
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