This time, we’re going to understand one of the most widely followed and recognized metrics of consumer financial health: The CPI.
One of the most widely known economic indicators for the Unites States, the CPI, or the Consumer Price Index, is used in understanding inflation trends, and changes in US consumer spending.
The CPI is a collection of prices for common items that seeks to represent spending by US consumers. It is updated on a monthly basis, and is a weighted average of nearly 80,000 prices of various goods and services, like fuel, housing, groceries, etc.
The CPI covers 93% of the US Population not living in rural areas, and is maintained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) which is a Federal body under the Department of Labor.
The CPI has several kinds of prices across everything the average US consumer needs.
The BLS publishes a comprehensive report each month covering each category, and the CPI covers
* Energy: 7.0%
* Food: 13.4%
* All Items less Food and Energy: 79.6%
