The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for the South declined 0.1 percent in December, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. A decrease in the gasoline index was a major contributor to the all items monthly decline. (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 increased 3.7 percent for the 12 months ending in December after increasing 3.4 percent for the 12-month period ending in November. (See chart 1 and table A.) The index for all items less and food and energy advanced 4.2 percent over the past 12 months. The food index continued to increase, up 2.8 percent over the past year. In contrast, the energy index declined 1.1 percent over the last 12 months. (See table 1.)

  

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Chart 1. Over-the-year percent change in CPI-U, South region, December 2020–December 2023

Month	All items	All items less food and energy
Dec 2020	1.4	1.7
Jan 2021	1.6	1.8
Feb 2021	2.0	1.6
Mar 2021	2.9	1.9
Apr 2021	4.4	3.3
May 2021	5.6	4.3
Jun 2021	5.8	5.0
Jul 2021	5.8	4.8
Aug 2021	5.6	4.5
Sep 2021	5.8	4.5
Oct 2021	6.6	5.0
Nov 2021	7.2	5.5
Dec 2021	7.4	6.0
Jan 2022	7.8	6.5
Feb 2022	8.4	7.0
Mar 2022	9.1	7.1
Apr 2022	8.8	6.8
May 2022	9.2	6.7
Jun 2022	9.8	6.7
Jul 2022	9.4	6.8
Aug 2022	8.9	7.1
Sep 2022	8.7	7.4
Oct 2022	8.1	7.1
Nov 2022	7.7	6.9
Dec 2022	7.0	6.5
Jan 2023	6.9	6.3
Feb 2023	6.4	6.2
Mar 2023	5.3	6.3
Apr 2023	5.5	6.3
May 2023	4.4	6.0
Jun 2023	3.3	5.5
Jul 2023	3.4	5.0
Aug 2023	4.1	4.8
Sep 2023	4.2	4.6
Oct 2023	3.7	4.5
Nov 2023	3.4	4.4
Dec 2023	3.7	4.2

The food index was unchanged in December. The food at home index declined 0.2 percent over the month, while the index for food away from home rose 0.2 percent in December. Within the food at home index, four of the six major grocery store food group indexes declined over the month, most notable, the index for cereal and bakery products (-0.6 percent).

The food index advanced 2.8 percent for the 12 months ending in December. The index for food away from home increased 5.6 percent over the past year and the index for food at home rose 1.3 percent. Four of the six major grocery store food group indexes increased over the past 12 months including other food at home (+3.2 percent), cereal and bakery products (+2.3 percent), and nonalcoholic beverages and beverage materials (+2.2 percent).

The energy index fell 1.0 percent in December, primarily due to a 3.7-percent drop in the gasoline index. The index for electricity rose 1.9 percent over the month. The natural gas index also increased in December, up 0.4 percent.

The energy index declined 1.1 percent for the 12 months ending in December. The natural gas index and the gasoline index declined over the past year, down 11.7 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively. In contrast, the index for electricity rose 2.3 percent over the past 12 months.    

The index for all items less food and energy was unchanged in December. The shelter index rose 0.3 percent over the month, reflecting increases in the owners’ equivalent rent (+0.4 percent) and rent of primary residence (+0.5 percent) indexes. The medical care index (+0.4 percent) was also among the indexes to increase in December, reflecting increases in the indexes for medical care services (+0.4 percent) and medical care commodities (+0.5 percent). Among the indexes to decline in December include apparel (-2.5 percent), new vehicles (-0.2 percent), and household furnishings and operations (-0.2 percent).

The index for all items less food and energy advanced 4.2 percent for the 12 months ending in December, after increasing 4.4 percent for the 12-month period ending in November. The increase was largely contributed to shelter (+6.7 percent). The index for owners’ equivalent increased 6.9 percent over the past year while the index for rent of primary residence rose 7.3 percent.

Additional price indexes are now available for the three divisions of the South. In December, the all items index declined 0.3 percent in the East South Central division and was unchanged for the South Atlantic and West South Central divisions.  

Over the year, the all items index increased 3.7 percent in both the South Atlantic and East South Central divisions, and 3.6 percent in the West South Central division.

The Consumer Price Index for January 2024 is scheduled to be released on Tuesday, February 13, 2024, at 8:30 a.m. (ET).

The Consumer Price Index for the South region is published monthly. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure 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, 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.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.