US CPI data calculation will witness a change from 2023. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) intends to annually update spending weights based on data from a single calendar year in order to increase the precision and relevance of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). This is a departure from the previous practice of updating weights every two years using two years of expenditure data. This modification will take effect when the US CPI index for January 2023 gets computed using the information on consumer expenditures from 2021.
The transition to annual weights will occur with the release of January 2023 CPI data, which is scheduled for Friday, February 10, 2023. Therefore, beginning with the February 2023 release of CPI data for January 2023, the BLS will update Consumer Price Index weights annually based on a single calendar year of data, using consumer expenditure data from 2021.
Before that the December 2022 CPI data are scheduled to be released on January 12, 2023, at 8:30 A.M. Eastern Time. This change affects the CPI for urban consumers (CPI-U), wage earners and clerical workers (CPI-W), initial and interim versions of the Chained CPI-U, and CPI research series. This change will affect some CPI documents, including the CPI Relative Importance tables Report and the CPI Handbook of Methods.
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The November consumer price index (CPI) report for the US, released on December 13, came in better than expected, with headline inflation at 0.1% month over month, and the year-over-year reading of 7.1% compared favourably with October’s 7.7% print. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, was up 0.2% from the previous month but fell from 6.3% to 6.0% year on year.
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The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services. Stock market investors keep watching the US CPI data each month. The multi-decade high inflation is yet to be brought under the Fed’s target of 2% despite the central bank raising interest rates by 4.25% in 2022. Higher rates keep borrowing costs high and impact corporate earnings thus reflecting on stock prices.
