What is the Consumer Price Index (CPI)?
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for consumer goods and services. The CPI measures inflation as experienced by consumers in their day-to-day living expenses. The index affects nearly all Americans because of the many ways it is used. Two major uses are to adjust federal tax tables and to increase Social Security benefits. The Con Edison Retirement Plan also uses the CPI to calculate the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) that is applied to pension benefits each April.
The consumer price index (CPI) is the most widely used measure of consumer price inflation. The CPI measures the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for goods and services. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. Department of Labor collects the CPI price information and calculates the CPI statistics.
