The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released November 2018 Consumer Price Indexes (CPI) today. The all items category decreased 0.3% over the last month & had 2.2% inflation over the last year on a seasonally unadjusted basis. The All items less food and energy index was unchanged over the last month and increased 2.2% over the last year. Household paper products rose by 1.9% over the last month & by 3.8% over the last year. Used cars and trucks increased by 1.1% over the last month and by 2.3% over the last year. Newspapers and magazines increased by 0.8% over the last month and by 7.1% over the last year. Vehicle accessories other than tires rose by 0.7% over the last month & by 3.6% over the last year. Recreational reading materials also increased by 0.3% over the last month & by 4.0% over the last year.
Shown below are historical inflation rates through November 2018 for selected CPI categories (all percentages in this blog are seasonally unadjusted averages):
CPI v. PPI Supermarket Inflation Comparison
The historical CPI v. PPI supermarket inflation spread through November ’18 is shown in the table below:
