The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released October 2018 Consumer Price Indexes (CPI) today. The all items category had 0.2% inflation over the last month & 2.5% inflation over the last year on a seasonally unadjusted basis. The All items less food and energy index increased by 0.2% over the last month and by 2.1% over the last year. Juices and nonalcoholic drinks rose by 0.9% over the last month & by 1.8% over the last year. Beer, ale and other malt beverages at home increased by 0.9% over the last month and by 1.6% over the last year. Carbonated drinks increased by 1.1% over the last month and by 2.6% over the last year. Appliances rose by 1.2% over the last month & by 4.9% over the last year.
Shown below are historical inflation rates through October 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 October 2018 is shown in the table below:
