CPI for all items increases 0.2% in May as energy, shelter increases outweigh food decline

[mahatmakanejeeves]

CPI for all items increases 0.2% in May as energy, shelter increases outweigh food decline

Economic News Release USDL-16-1197

Consumer Price Index Summary

Transmission of material in this release is embargoed until 8:30 a.m. (EDT) June 16, 2016

Technical information: [phone] [e-mail] www.bls.gov/cpi
Media Contact: [phone] [e-mail]

CONSUMER PRICE INDEX – MAY 2016

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.2 percent in May on a seasonally adjusted basis, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index rose 1.0 percent before seasonal adjustment.

The food index declined in May, but the indexes for energy and all items less food and energy rose, resulting in the seasonally adjusted all items increase. The food index fell 0.2 percent, as all six major grocery store food group indexes declined. The energy index increased 1.2 percent as the gasoline index rose 2.3 percent and the indexes for fuel oil and natural gas also advanced.

The index for all items less food and energy increased 0.2 percent in May. The shelter index rose 0.4 percent, and the indexes for medical care, apparel, motor vehicle insurance, and education were among indexes that also increased. These advances more than offset declines in an array of indexes including used cars and trucks, communications, household furnishings and operations, airline fares, and new vehicles.

The all items index rose 1.0 percent for the 12 months ending May, compared to a 1.1-percent increase for the 12 months ending April. The index for all items less food and energy rose 2.2 percent over the last 12 months. The food index has risen 0.7 percent over the last year, with the index for food at home declining 0.7 percent and the index for food away from home rising 2.6 percent. The energy index has declined 10.1 percent over the past 12 months, with all major components falling over the span.
....

The Consumer Price Index for June 2016 is scheduled to be released on Friday, July 15, 2016, at 8:30 a.m. (EDT).

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Brief Explanation of the CPI

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change in prices over time of goods and services purchased by households. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes CPIs for two population groups: (1) the CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), which covers households of wage earners and clerical workers that comprise approximately 28 percent of the total population and (2) the CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) and the Chained CPI for All Urban Consumers (C-CPI-U), which covers approximately 89 percent of the total population and includes, in addition to wage earners and clerical worker households, groups such as professional, managerial, and technical workers, the self-employed, short-term workers, the unemployed, and retirees and others not in the labor force.....

For further details visit the CPI home page on the Internet at www.bls.gov/cpi/ or contact our CPI Information and Analysis Section on [phone].

Read more: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm

Not all CPI's are alike. For an earlier discussion at DU about that, see:

CPI for all items falls 0.1% in December as energy and food indexes decline

and

CPI for all items rises 0.2% as gasoline and shelter prices rise; food prices decline

From the zeroeth post:

I added the bolding.

Cryptoad points out the significance of the CPI-W. It is used to calculate Social Security's Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA):

Based on the increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-W) from the third quarter of 2013 through the third quarter of 2014, Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries will receive a 1.7 percent COLA for 2015.

Consumer Price Index Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What goods and services does the CPI cover?

The CPI represents all goods and services purchased for consumption by the reference population (U or W) BLS has classified all expenditure items into more than 200 categories, arranged into eight major groups. Major groups and examples of categories in each are as follows:
FOOD AND BEVERAGES (breakfast cereal, milk, coffee, chicken, wine, full service meals, snacks)
HOUSING (rent of primary residence, owners' equivalent rent, fuel oil, bedroom furniture)
APPAREL (men's shirts and sweaters, women's dresses, jewelry)
TRANSPORTATION (new vehicles, airline fares, gasoline, motor vehicle insurance)
MEDICAL CARE (prescription drugs and medical supplies, physicians' services, eyeglasses and eye care, hospital services)
RECREATION (televisions, toys, pets and pet products, sports equipment, admissions);
EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION (college tuition, postage, telephone services, computer software and accessories);
OTHER GOODS AND SERVICES (tobacco and smoking products, haircuts and other personal services, funeral expenses).

The CPI-U is used by the Treasury Department to set the interest rates on I Bonds.

I Savings Bonds

How do I Bonds earn interest?

Interest on an I Bond rates is a combination of two rates:
1.A fixed rate of return which remains the same throughout the life of the I Bond

and
2.A variable inflation rate which we calculate twice a year, based on changes in the nonseasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for all items, including food and energy (CPI-U for March compared with the CPI-U for September of the same year, and then CPI-U for September compared with the CPI-U for March of the following year).

In specific, there is a discussion of the Cost of Living Index here:

Let's look at that.

The CPI-W is discussed here:

CPI-W methodology