CPI, less food and energy

When the BLS puts out the CPI each month, there’s a headline number that tells you how much the prices of those 80,000 items in the basket have gone up or down. But there is another number — that’s sometimes called the “core” number — that intentionally leaves out food and energy prices because they tend to bounce around a lot. “Increases in those particular goods may not reflect long term pressures,” said Groshen. “They may just be reflecting weather patterns or things like that.”