The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for the South rose 0.5 percent in February, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The energy index increased 3.7 percent over the month, while the index for all items less food and energy edged up 0.3 percent. The food index also increased in February, up 0.3 percent. (Data in this report are not seasonally adjusted. Accordingly, month-to-month changes reflect the impact of seasonal influences.)

The all items CPI-U for the South advanced 2.0 percent for the 12 months ending February 2021. The index for all items less food and energy increased 1.6 percent over the past year, while the food index advanced 3.8 percent and the energy index rose 2.7 percent. (See chart 1 and table 1.)

Food

The food index rose 0.3 percent in February, reflecting a 0.6-percent increase in the food at home index. The food away from home index was unchanged over the month.  

The food index advanced 3.8 percent for the 12 months ending in February, reflecting increases in the food at home (4.2 percent) and food away from home (3.4 percent) indexes.  

Energy

The energy index increased 3.7 percent in February, led by a 7.3-percent increase in the gasoline index. The electricity index edged up 0.2 percent in February, while the utility (piped) gas service index rose 0.5 percent over the month.

The energy index rose 2.7 percent for the 12 months ending in February, reflecting increases in the gasoline (4.0 percent), utility (piped) gas service (7.2 percent), and electricity (0.7 percent) indexes.

All items less food and energy

The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.3 percent in February. Several indexes increased over the month, including shelter (0.2 percent), apparel (2.3 percent), and medical care (0.5 percent).

The index for all items less food and energy increased 1.6 percent for the 12 months ending in February, led by a 2.0-percent increase in the shelter index. The used cars and trucks index jumped 8.7 percent over the past year, while the medical care index advanced 2.8 percent—reflecting a 3.7-percent increase in the medical care services index. Apparel (-4.5 percent) was among the indexes to decline over the year.

Geographic divisions

Additional price indexes are now available for the three divisions of the South. The all items CPI-U advanced 0.6 percent in the East South Central and the West South Central divisions in February. The all items index in the South Atlantic division rose 0.5 percent over the past month.  

Over the year, the all items index advanced 2.9 percent in the East South Central division. The all items index rose 2.1 percent in the South Atlantic division and 1.5 percent in the West South Central division.

Table A. South region CPI-U 1-month and 12-month percent changes, all items index, not seasonally adjusted

Month	2017		2018		2019		2020		2021
	1-month	12-month	1-month	12-month	1-month	12-month	1-month	12-month	1-month	12-month
January	0.5	2.6	0.5	1.8	0.2	1.2	0.3	2.3	0.5	1.6
February	0.2	2.8	0.6	2.1	0.5	1.1	0.2	1.9	0.5	2.0
March	0.0	2.2	0.2	2.3	0.7	1.6	-0.1	1.1
April	0.2	2.0	0.4	2.4	0.5	1.8	-0.8	-0.2
May	0.0	1.7	0.3	2.7	-0.1	1.4	-0.2	-0.4
June	0.2	1.5	0.2	2.7	-0.1	1.1	0.6	0.3
July	-0.2	1.6	0.0	2.9	0.3	1.4	0.6	0.6
August	0.4	1.9	-0.1	2.4	-0.1	1.4	0.4	1.1
September	0.7	2.4	0.0	1.7	0.0	1.3	0.2	1.3
October	-0.2	2.0	0.2	2.1	0.2	1.3	0.1	1.3
November	-0.1	2.1	-0.3	1.9	0.0	1.6	-0.1	1.2
December	-0.1	1.8	-0.5	1.5	0.0	2.1	0.2	1.4

The Consumer Price Index for March 2021 is scheduled to be released on Tuesday, April 13, 2021 at 8:30 a.m. (ET).

Technical Note

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measures of the average change in prices over time in a fixed market basket of goods and services. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes CPIs for two population groups: (1) a CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) which covers approximately 93 percent of the total U.S. population and (2) a CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) which covers approximately 29 percent of the total U.S. population. The CPI-U includes, in addition to wage earners and clerical workers, groups such as professional, managerial, and technical workers, the self-employed, short-term workers, the unemployed, and retirees and others not in the labor force.

The CPI is based on prices of food, clothing, shelter, and fuels, transportation fares, charges for doctors' and dentists' services, drugs, and the other goods and services that people buy for day-to-day living. Each month, prices are collected in 75 urban areas across the country from about 6,000 housing units and approximately 22,000 retail establishments—department stores, supermarkets, hospitals, filling stations, and other types of stores and service establishments. All taxes directly associated with the purchase and use of items are included in the index.

The index measures price changes from a designated reference date; for most of the CPI-U the reference base is 1982-84 equals 100. An increase of 7 percent from the reference base, for example, is shown as 107.000.  Alternatively, that relationship can also be expressed as the price of a base period market basket of goods and services rising from $100 to $107. For further details see the CPI home page on the Internet at www.bls.gov/cpi and the CPI section of the BLS Handbook of Methods available on the internet at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cpi/.

In calculating the index, price changes for the various items in each location are averaged together with weights that represent their importance in the spending of the appropriate population group. Local data are then combined to obtain a U.S. city average. Because the sample size of a local area is smaller, the local area index is subject to substantially more sampling and other measurement error than the national index. In addition, local indexes are not adjusted for seasonal influences. As a result, local area indexes show greater volatility than the national index, although their long-term trends are quite similar. NOTE: Area indexes do not measure differences in the level of prices between cities; they only measure the average change in prices for each area since the base period.

The South region is comprised of Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.

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