Consumer Price Index Continues to Rise in August

Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 0.4 percent increase in the CPI for All Urban Consumers in August, the thirteenth month-to-month gain over the past 14 months. Compared to August 2010, the all-items index is up 3.8 percent.
Courtesy of NAHB

The Consumer Price Index was up again in August, with continuing increases in gasoline, food, shelter and clothing.

The increase in the all-items index was broadly based, with each of the index’s major components contributing to the rise. The energy index rose 1.2 percent, the food index advanced 0.5% and the core index was up 0.2 percent. The recent declines in oil prices have been slow to flow though to the pump, with gasoline prices up 1.9 percent, although they were down 0.5 percent before seasonal adjustment.

The shelter index rose steadily for the 11th consecutive month, inching up a further 0.2 percent in August. Overall, the shelter index is up 1.6 percent relative to August 2010. Owners’ equivalent rent and rent of primary residence maintained their steady rates of growth, up 0.2 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively. In the past year, these subcomponents have risen 1.4 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

Conditions in the market for rental housing have been firming in recent months and August was no exception following the largest increase in the rent of primary residences index since mid-2008.

– Courtesy of NAHB