The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes monthly Consumer Price Indexes (CPI) which show the change in living costs as a percentage over prior month and over the prior twelve months. As the Wenatchee area does not have the requisite population to constitute a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), an index number is not generated for this region. BLS does publish a West CPI index monthly which encompasses the thirteen westernmost states. In addition, they publish a West B/C index, which is for all size classes less than 1,500,000.
The Information for selected Western Metropolitan Cities as well as the U. S. City Average for all urban consumers is also published monthly and can be found at ftp://146.142.4.23/pub/special.requests/sanfrancisco/pacities.txt
Most Current Consumer Price Index
All Items Index
(1982-84 = 100 unless otherwise noted)
August 2011
| |
ALL URBAN CONSUMERS
|
PERCENT CHANGE
|
| |
INDEXES
|
YEAR ENDING
|
MONTH ENDING |
| |
AUG 2010 |
JULY 2011 |
AUG 2011 |
JULY 2011 |
AUG 2011 |
AUG 2011 |
| U.S. CITY AVG |
218.312 |
225.922 |
226.545 |
3.6 |
3.8 |
0.3 |
| WEST |
221.523 |
227.805 |
228.222 |
2.9 |
3.0 |
0.2 |
WEST - B/C*
(DEC 1996=100) |
133.704 |
138.128 |
138.171 |
3.3 |
3.3 |
0.0 |
*Size Class: B/C = less than 1,500,000 population
Release date July 15, 2009. The next monthly releases and semi-annual releases are scheduled for August 14, 2009. The next bi-monthly releases are scheduled to be issued September 16, 2009..
Using the CPI Index for Escalator Clauses
The Bureau of Labor Statistics strongly recommends users adopt the U.S. City Average CPI for all urban consumers for use in escalator clauses. For further information on using the CPI for escalation purposes, reference information from the BLS publication "How to Use the Consumer Price Index for Escalation", is available online at http://www.bls.gov
This card is available on the day of release by electronic distribution. Just go to www.bls.gov/bls/list.htm and sign up for the free on-line delivery service. For questions, please contact BLSinfoSF@BLS.GOV or (415) 975-4350.