CPI inflation detail

A closer look at consumer price inflation, with a toggle for growth (each category’s own inflation rate, by expenditure group, plus the specialty indices) or contributions (how much each adds to headline CPI, on one shared axis so magnitudes are directly comparable).

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (sticky-price index: Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta); author’s calculations. Growth is each category’s price change — 1-month (bars) and 3-month (line), percent at an annual rate. Contributions are each category’s share of headline CPI — 1-month annual-rate (bars) and 12-month (line), percentage points — on one shared axis; a few volatile months run off the top. The five “components of inflation” approximately sum to headline CPI (contributions are linear approximations, so they need not add exactly); the “selected items” are additional, overlapping cuts.