Inflation Indexes Shifted to New Bases

The Labor Department has changed the base years for expressing its Consumer Price Index, which shows price changes for retail goods and services, and its Producer Price Index, the measure for wholesale goods.

Since 1971, the government has used 1967 as the base. Consumer goods and services costing $10.00 in 1967 cost $34.57 in December.

The new base will be 1982-84 for the CPI and 1982 for the PPI, said Kenneth V. Dalton, associate commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The new PPI base, effective Friday, is reflected in today’s Trends tables. The new CPI base, effective Feb. 26, will show up in Feb. 29 Trends data.

With such a new base, goods and services that cost $34.57 in 1967 dollars in December cost about $11.00 in 1982-84 dollars.

The change will make no difference in the expression of the rate of inflation, which was 4.4% last year in consumer prices, Dalton said.