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Inflation Indicators

Access comprehensive inflation data including Consumer Price Index (CPI), Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE), Producer Price Index (PPI), and GDP deflator. These indicators measure price changes across the economy and are essential for understanding purchasing power, monetary policy, and economic conditions.


Use Cases

  • Monitor real-time inflation trends for investment and policy decisions
  • Calculate real returns by adjusting nominal yields for inflation
  • Track Federal Reserve's progress toward 2% inflation target
  • Analyze producer vs consumer price pressures in supply chains
  • Build inflation forecasting models for economic research

Plan Access

Free
Pro
Enterprise

Data Recency

Free: Updated monthly
Pro: Updated monthly
Enterprise: Updated monthly

Historical Data

Free: All history
Pro: All history
Enterprise: All history

Available Series

CPI

Consumer Price Index

Measures the average change in prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of goods and services

Frequency:monthly
Units:Index
CPI_CORE

Core CPI (ex food/energy)

CPI excluding food and energy prices, showing underlying inflation trends

Frequency:monthly
Units:Index
PCE

PCE Price Index

Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index - broader measure of inflation used by the Federal Reserve

Frequency:monthly
Units:Index
PCE_CORE

Core PCE (Fed's target)

Fed's preferred measure of underlying inflation, excluding food and energy

Frequency:monthly
Units:Index
PPI

Producer Price Index

Measures average change in prices received by domestic producers

Frequency:monthly
Units:Index
GDP_DEFLATOR

GDP Deflator

Broad measure of inflation across all goods and services in GDP

Frequency:quarterly
Units:Index

How to Query Inflation Data

Get Latest CPI Value

curl -X GET "https://api.exanomic.com/v2/series/CPI/observations?limit=1&sort=desc" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your-api-key-here"

Calculate Year-over-Year Inflation Rate

curl -X GET "https://api.exanomic.com/v2/series/CPI/analytics/yoy?limit=12" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your-api-key-here"

Compare Multiple Inflation Measures

curl -X POST "https://api.exanomic.com/v2/series/multi" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your-api-key-here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "series_ids": ["CPI", "CPI_CORE", "PCE", "PCE_CORE"],
    "limit": 24
  }'

Understanding Inflation Data

CPI vs PCE

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) are both measures of inflation, but they differ in methodology and coverage:

  • CPI uses a fixed basket of goods and is based on out-of-pocket spending
  • PCE updates basket weights and includes spending on behalf of consumers (e.g., employer health insurance)
  • The Federal Reserve targets 2% Core PCE inflation for monetary policy

Core vs Headline

Core inflation measures exclude volatile food and energy prices to reveal underlying inflation trends. Headline inflation includes all components and better reflects actual cost of living changes.

Data Sources

U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsBureau of Economic AnalysisFederal Reserve