The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) in the Boston-Brockton-Nashua area edged down 0.4 percent in November, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Deborah A. Brown noted that the two-month decrease was mainly due to lower prices paid by area consumers for all items less food and energy, down 0.9 percent and to a lesser extent, lower food prices, down 0.1 percent. Higher energy prices, up 5.2 percent partially offset this decrease. (Data in this report are not seasonally adjusted. Accordingly, bimonthly changes may reflect the impact of seasonal influences.)

Over the last 12 months the Boston CPI-U rose 1.3 percent. The increase was largely attributable to higher prices within all items less food and energy, up 1.2 percent.(See chart 1.) To a lesser extent, higher energy prices paid by area consumers, up 3.9, and higher food prices up 0.5 percent also contributed to the increase.

 

Food

Food prices edged down 0.1 percent since September mainly due to lower grocery store or food at home prices, down 0.4 percent. Restaurant prices, or food away from home, edged up 0.5 percent partially offsetting this decrease. 

Food prices increased 0.5 percent over the year mainly due to higher restaurant prices, up 3.4 percent.  Grocery store prices edged down 1.2 percent partially offsetting the overall increase since last November.  

Energy

The energy index increased 5.2 percent over the two months, mainly due to higher utility piped gas (16.4 percent) and to a lesser extent, increases in prices paid by local households for electricity (4.5 percent).  Higher prices for gasoline up 1.6 percent, also contributed to the overall increase in local energy prices over the period.

Energy prices were up 3.9 percent from a year ago, largely attributable to higher electricity prices, up 10.2 percent. Higher prices for gasoline, up 1.2 percent, and utility piped gas, up 1.5 percent, also contributed to the overall increase. 

All items less food and energy

The index for all items less food and energy edged down from September (0.9 percent).  The decrease was mainly attributable to shelter costs, down 1 percent. To a lesser extent, decreases in apparel costs (9 percent) attributed to this overall decrease. Within the local shelter index, lower prices for lodging away from home led the decline reflecting normal seasonal declines.  Lower costs for new and used motor vehicles (1.2 percent) were partially offset by higher costs for education and communication.

Over the year, the index for all items less food and energy rose 1.2 percent, with higher shelter costs being the main driver of the increase up 2.8 percent. Higher education and communication prices up 2.9 percent also contributed to the overall increase. Within shelter, higher costs for owners’ equivalent rent of residences, up 3.1 percent and, to a lesser extent, rent of primary residence, up 3.5 led the increase. Apparel costs edged down 4.6 percent partially offsetting the increase over the period.

CPI-W

In November, the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) was 260.705. The CPI-W was up 0.1 percent over two months and increased 1.4 percent over the year.

The January 2017 Consumer Price Index for Boston-Brockton-Nashua is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, February 15, 2017, at 8:30 a.m. (ET).

Technical Note

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change in prices over time in a fixed market basket of goods and services. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes CPIs for two population groups: (1) a CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) which covers approximately 89 percent of the total population and (2) a CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) which covers 28 percent of the total population. The CPI-U includes, in addition to wage earners and clerical workers, groups such as professional, managerial, and technical workers, the self-employed, short-term workers, the unemployed, and retirees and others not in the labor force.

The CPI is based on prices of food, clothing, shelter, and fuels, transportation fares, charges for doctors' and dentists' services, drugs, and the other goods and services that people buy for day-to-day living. Each month, prices are collected in 87 urban areas across the country from about 6,000 housing units and approximately 24,000 retail establishments--department stores, supermarkets, hospitals, filling stations, and other types of stores and service establishments. All taxes directly associated with the purchase and use of items are included in the index.

The index measures price change from a designated reference date (1982-84) that equals 100.0. An increase of 16.5 percent, for example, is shown as 116.5. This change can also be expressed in dollars as follows: the price of a base period "market basket" of goods and services in the CPI has risen from $10 in 1982-84 to $11.65. For further details see the CPI home page on the Internet at www.bls.gov/cpi and the BLS Handbook of Methods, Chapter 17, The Consumer Price Index, available on the Internet at https://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/pdf/homch17.pdf. 

In calculating the index, price changes for the various items in each location are averaged together withweights that represent their importance in the spending of the appropriate population group. Local data are then combined to obtain a U.S. city average. Because the sample size of a local area is smaller, the local area index is subject to substantially more sampling and other measurement error than the national index. In addition, local indexes are not adjusted for seasonal influences. As a result, local area indexes show greater volatility than the national index, although their long-term trends are quite similar. NOTE: Area indexes do not measure differences in the level of prices between cities; they only measure the average change in prices for each area since the base period.

The Boston-Brockton-Nashua, Mass.-N.H.-Maine-Conn. consolidated area covered in this release is comprised of Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk, Bristol, Hampden, and Worcester Counties in Massachusetts; Hillsborough, Merrimack, Rockingham, and Strafford Counties in New Hampshire; York County in Maine; and Windham County in Connecticut.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service (800) 877-8339.