View: Consumer Price Index (CPI)

April 13, 2012 On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers rose 0.3 percent in March after rising 0.4 percent in February. The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.2 percent in March after increasing 0.1 percent in February. More... (HTML) (PDF)

Current CPI Economic News ReleasesArchived

Notices

Revised Seasonal Indexes

UPDATED UPDATED Each year with the release of the January CPI, seasonal adjustment factors are recalculated to reflect price movements from the just-completed calendar year. This routine annual recalculation may result in revisions to seasonally adjusted indexes for the previous 5 years. BLS made available recalculated seasonally adjusted indexes, as well as recalculated seasonal adjustment factors, for the period January 2007 through December 2011, on Wednesday, February 15, 2012.

FFor information on seasonal adjustment in the CPI, including revised indexes, seasonal factors, methodology, and actions taken in 2011, see our page on seasonal adjustment.

Social Security COLA

Soon after the publication of September CPI data on October 19, 2011, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced the annual change in its benefit payments for the coming year for Social Security's Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. Specific information on how the Social Security Administration uses the CPI to determine cost-of-living adjustments can be found at http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/latestCOLA.html.

Expenditure Weight UpdateEffective with the January 2010 release the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has updated the consumption expenditure weights in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) and Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) to the 2007-08 period. The updated expenditure weights for these indexes replace the 2005-2006 weights that were introduced effective with the January 2008 CPI release. As originally announced by BLS in December 1998, CPI expenditure weights will continue to be updated at two year intervals subsequent to the 2010 updating.

CPI Published NumbersEffective with the release in February 2007 of the January 2007 Consumer Price Index (CPI), the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) began to publish its consumer price indexes rounded to three decimal places. Percent changes will be calculated from the three decimal place indexes. Those percent changes will continue to be published to one decimal place. For additional information, please see "Publishing Consumer Price Indexes to Three Decimal Places: Questions and Answers".

Contacts

For hard copies of Consumer Price Index publications or historical data and help with general index questions, including escalator clauses in contracts:

Information and Analysis: (202) 691-7000

For more information about how we treat and price commodity and service items in the Consumer Price Index:

Housing (rent and owners' equivalent rent): (202) 691-6991 Transportation and Household Commodities (including gasoline, new cars, furniture and appliances): (202) 691-6982 Apparel and Sundry (Nondurable) Commodities: (202) 691-6979 Services (including medical care, utilities, insurance): (202) 691-6985

For help finding Consumer Price Index data in LABSTAT and for information on seasonal adjustment and other technical issues:

Production and Control: (202) 691-6968