Core CPI (all items less food and energy), United States

Core CPI, seasonally adjusted, is the consumer price index for all urban consumers excluding food and energy, published monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics with seasonal patterns removed. Food and energy prices swing with harvests, weather and oil markets, so taking them out leaves a series that moves more slowly and shows the trend that monetary policy can influence.

Markets react to the monthly change in this index more than to almost any other inflation figure, because it arrives before most other monthly inflation data and a change of a tenth of a percentage point shifts expectations for Federal Reserve policy. Analysts often annualize three- or six-month changes to judge whether underlying inflation is moving toward the Fed's goal.

Two cautions apply. Housing costs, measured through rents and owners' equivalent rent, are the largest single part of core CPI, and they follow market rents with a long delay; core CPI can stay high after new leases have cooled. And like the headline adjusted index, core CPI is revised each year when the BLS recalculates seasonal factors. The Federal Reserve's preferred core measure is core PCE inflation, which gives housing a smaller weight, so the two can send different signals.

Core CPI is at its highest since the series starts in January 2006. Within ten years, core CPI beats 100% of readings.

CPI-U all items less food and energy, seasonally adjusted.

BLS publishes core CPI monthly in CPI, in index (1982-84 = 100) and is seasonally adjusted. Code: CUSR0000SA0L1E. Method for core CPI.