Consumer Price Index

The Consumer Price Index is a summary measure of the rate of change in price of a fixed basket of goods and services over time. The simplest way to look at it is to imagine a shopping basket consisting of different kinds of goods and services purchased by a household. As the price of individual items in the basket change, the total cost of the basket will vary. The CPI is therefore a measure of the change in the total cost of this basket of goods and services from period to period. The CPI is a very important statistic- used for assessing the cost of living and wage negotiation.