Consumer prices increase 1.4 percent from July 2011 to July 2012

Over the last 12 months, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 1.4 percent before seasonal adjustment. This compares to 1.7 percent in June and is the smallest 12-month change since November 2010.

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The housing index increased 1.4 percent from July 2011 to July 2012. Housing is the largest component of the CPI-U, accounting for 40.9 percent of expenditures by consumers. The index for transportation, which accounts for 17.2 percent of consumer expenditures, decreased 0.9 percent over the year.

The index for food and beverages (which account for 15.1 percent of consumer expenditures) increased 2.3 percent from July 2011 to July 2012. Prices for food at home rose 1.9 percent over the year, while prices for food away from home rose 2.9 percent.

The index for medical care (which accounts for 7.1 percent of consumer expenditures) rose 4.1 percent from July 2011 to July 2012.

The index for education and communication (which accounts for 6.7 percent of consumer expenditures) rose 2.1 percent over the year. The index for education rose 4.4 percent, while the index for communication decreased 0.1 percent.

These data are from the BLS Consumer Price Index program. To learn more, see "Consumer Price Index — July 2012" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-12-1646. The percent of total consumer expenditures for each category is also called the relative importance of the category.