What Core Inflation Is — and Why the Fed Watches It Over Headline
Core inflation strips food and energy prices from the index, producing the smoother series the Federal Reserve treats as the better guide to underlying price pressure.
Lena Fischer
Complete Oral Hygiene Guide for Dental Implant Patients
Christopher Lee
How the Consumer Price Index Is Actually Calculated
The CPI is built from about 94,000 monthly price quotes weighted by household spending surveys, and its known limits — substitution, coverage, shelter lag — are published with it.
Editorial Staff
Owners' Equivalent Rent Carries 25.8% of the CPI
A quarter of the U.S. consumer price index tracks a rent no homeowner pays. Here is how the Bureau of Labor Statistics builds the number, and why it lags market rents.
Lena FischerAnalysis & Opinion
How the Consumer Price Index Turns 80,000 Prices Into One Number
The BLS combines roughly 80,000 monthly price quotes with Consumer Expenditure Survey weights to produce the CPI, which rose 0.1% in July 2026 as core inflation climbed 0.2%.
CEO Exits Fall 26% as Firms Cut Management Layers Instead
Boards are keeping chief executives in place while companies strip out the management tier beneath them, new turnover and workforce data show.
37% Top Tax Bracket Doesn't Apply to All Income
IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 sets the 2026 federal income tax brackets, and the mechanism behind them trips up more taxpayers than the numbers themselves.
BLS Prices Nearly 80,000 Items to Build the CPI
The Consumer Price Index comes from monthly price checks on roughly 80,000 items across dozens of U.S. areas, weighted by a separate survey of household spending.
Economy
More in Economy →Fed Cuts Rates Half a Point, First Reduction Since 2020
The Federal Reserve lowered its policy rate 50 basis points to 4.75-5.00 percent in September 2024, its first cut since March 2020, citing rising labor-market risk.
Editorial StaffMarkets
More in Markets →Core CPI Rose 2.5% Year Over Year in July
The Bureau of Labor Statistics' core inflation gauge, which excludes food and energy, climbed 0.2% for the month and 2.5% from a year earlier in the July 2026 report.
Editorial StaffRetail
More in Retail →
Federal Law Sets a Five-Year Floor on Gift Card Expiration
Henrik LarsenRetail Sales Fall 0.6% in July as Inflation Holds at 3.4%
Consumer spending posted its sharpest monthly drop in more than a year, even as annual retail sales growth continued to outpace headline inflation, government data show.
Editorial StaffBusiness News
More in Business News →Core CPI Climbed 2.5% in July, Excluding Food and Fuel
Core inflation strips out food and energy to track the underlying trend. Here is what it measures, how it differs from headline CPI, and why the Federal Reserve tracks a different index entirely.
Lena FischerConsumer Price Dashboard
Explore the data · BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.