Consumer Price Index (CPI)

Definition: An index that measures the change in price of a representative basket
of goods and services such as food, energy, housing, clothing, transportation,
medical care, entertainment and education. It's also known as the cost-of-living
index.

Importance: It's important to monitor the CPI excluding food and energy prices for
its monthly stability. This is referred to as the "core CPI" and gives a clearer picture
of the underlying inflation trend.

The rate of change of the core CPI is one of the key measures of inflation for the
US economy. Inflationary pressure is generated when the core CPI posts larger-than-expected gains.

Source: Bureau of Labor statistics, U.S. Department of Labor.

Availability: Around the 13th of the month at 8:30am ET. Data for month prior.

Frequency: Monthly.

Revisions: Seasonal factors are updated in February with the release of January
data. This revision affects the last five years of data. Low significance.

Raw Data: http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.toc.htm

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