What is the CPI?

“Bias in the CPI: "Roughly Right or Precisely Wrong"” FRBSF Economic Letter. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco -- A discussion of concern over biases in the CPI. Available at: http://www.frbsf.org/econrsrch/wklyltr/el97-16.html

Brief explanation of the CPI. Springfield Business and Development Corporation. – An overview of the CPI and how it is calculated by a Chamber of Commerce organization. Available at: http://economics.about.com/library/chartroom/blcpimeasure.htm

Consumer Price Index. By Nouriel Roubini. An explanation of the impact of and importance of changes in the CPI on the economy. Available at: http://www.stern.nyu.edu/~nroubini/bci/ConsumerPriceIndex.htm

Consumer Price Indexes Home. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U. S. Dept. of Labor. - Includes instructions for use of the CPI, technical reports on how the CPI is compiled, and questions and answers about the CPI. Be sure to read the General Overview, Frequently Asked Questions, and Fact Sheets. The Reports section and Special Notices will be helpful to those who use the CPI extensively. Available at: http://www.bls.gov/cpi/home.htm

“Consumer Price Indexes”. Handbook of Methods, Chap. 17. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U. S. Dept. of Labor. - Includes the history and use of the CPI, construction of the index, and precision of estimates. Available at: http://stats.bls.gov/opub/hom/homch17_itc.htm

How the Government Measures the CPI.. By Eugene Becker – An explanation of the CPI that is easily understood by the layman. Available at: http://economics.about.com/library/chartroom/blcpimeasure.htm

What is the Consumer Price Index and How is it Used?. Institute for Research on Poverty. - Includes a basic explanation of the CPI and formulas for calculating changes in prices between two years. Available at: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/irp/faqs/faq5.htm

What Can One Do With the CPI?

Calculators - The following on-line calculators allow the calculation of the increase in a price over a user-entered time period.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank - http://minneapolisfed.org/economy/calc/cpihome.html

NASA - http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/bu2/inflateCPI.html

Morgan’s Inflation Calculator - http://www.westegg.com/inflation

How to Use the Consumer Price Index for Escalation. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U. S. Dept. of Labor – An explanation of how to apply CPI data to salary increases or contacts which call for increase or decrease based on the CPI. Available at: http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpi1998d.htm

Inflation Conversion Factors for Dollars 1700 to Estimated 2010. By Robert Sahr - Tables of conversion factors to allow calculation of the value of a dollar based on the CPI and historical price statistics between any two given years. Available at: http://www.orst.edu/dept/pol_sci/fac/sahr/sahr.htm

US Consumer Price Index & Inflation Forecast for the Next Six Months. Financial Forecast Center - This tool forecasts the CPI-U for the next six months. Longer term forecasts are available for a fee by subscribing to the service. Available at: http://www.neatideas.com/cpi.htm

Where Can the CPI be Found?

BLS News Service. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U. S. Dept. of Labor (current) - A free subscription service that provides the CPI and Regional CPI Summaries to the subscriber’s e-mail. Subscribe at: http://www.bls.gov/bls/list.htm

Consumer Price Index. Ekstrom Library, University of Louisville. - Links to the Consumer Price Index and aids at a variety of Government sites, and to consumer prices for other countries. Available at: http://athena.louisville.edu/library/ekstrom/govpubs/subjects/economy/consumer.html

Consumer Price Indexes Home. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U. S. Dept. of Labor (current) - The Consumer Price Indexes page provides the most current access to CPI figures. Detailed tables, historical data, schedule of release dates, and files of data available for download are available here. On-line at: http://www.bls.gov/cpi/home.htm

Monthly Consumer Price Indexes (CPI). The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. - This site gives access to a table which lists the CPI-U seasonally adjusted and not seasonally adjusted from 1946 to the present on a monthly basis. Available at: http://www.stls.frb.org/fred/data/cpi.html

Human Resources Management: Compensation. CCH Inc., -Includes questions and answers about the CPI and its use. CPI-W and CPI-U summary tables for all items, cities, and U. S. city average are included in the service. Update pages usually arrive within two weeks of the report release date. Available by print or on-line subscription from: CCH Inc., Chicago, IL (1-800-449-9525) or on the web at http://www.cch.com

Monthly Labor Review. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U. S. Dept. of Labor, (Published Monthly) - This source contains the CPI-U and CPI-W by commodity or service group, and the CPI - U. S. City average by region and selected local areas. This source also includes articles which discuss statistical and technical issues related to what the CPI measures, how it is adjusted, biases in the measures and changes in computation methods. The current on-line version is two months old and the CPI data is for two months previous. Available in full text from January 1988 to present at on-line at: http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/mlrhome.htm

Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2000. U. S. Census Bureau, U. S. Dept. of Commerce. (Published Annually) - Includes historical and current tables and charts of the CPI-U without all the choices of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Site. Use the index to search for “Consumer Price Index” and click on the link to the index you wish to view. Available on-line at: http://www.census.gov/prod/www/INDEX00C.HTM