BZ Bread

by George Schils.

CPI decreases in July 2009 and previous five months

Monday, August 31, 2009

Analysis of cpi from data released on August 14, 2009 shows another year over year decline. The months March through July of 2009 have showed decreases in the cpi from the same month a year ago. It appears that the rate of decline is increasing.

From July 2008 to July 2009, the cpi showed a 2.1% drop.

The percentage increases for the last seven months are tabulated below. Decreases are seen for the last five months.

Jan. 2008 - Jan. 2009        0.030049
Feb. 2008 - Feb. 2009        0.236226
Mar. 2008 - Mar. 2009        -0.38366
Apr. 2008 - Apr. 2009        -0.7372
May. 2008 - May. 2009        -1.28164
Jun. 2008 - Jun. 2009        -1.42691
Jul. 2008 - Jul. 2009        -2.09724

Data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and series CUUR0000AA0 is used. Data here is normalized so that 1967=100.