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Saturday, September 22, 2012 - 12:45 PM
Measuring Inflation - EPI vs CPI This Year
Many claim that the government's CPI grossly underestimates real inflation. The American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) shows some underestimation by measuring inflation using their own index called the Everyday Price Index (EPI). This measures the prices of goods and services that Americans purchase frequently. The EPI doesn't show tremendous inflation, but it does show that inflation has consistently gone up more than the government's CPI. This AIER article reports on August inflation:
The AIER Everyday Price Index (EPI), which measures the prices of goods and services that Americans purchase frequently, rose 1.8 percent in August (before seasonal adjustments).Read more
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So far this year, everyday prices have increased 4.2 percent, three times the 1.4 percent increase in the seasonally adjusted CPI over the same period. (The CPI, which includes big ticket items and occasional purchases, rose 0.6 percent in August.)
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