The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach declined 0.2 percent from October to December, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that the index for all items less food and energy inched down 0.1 percent over the bi-monthly period, while the food index declined 0.5 percent. In contrast, the energy index edged up 0.2 percent from October to December. (Data in this report are not seasonally adjusted. Accordingly, bi-monthly changes may reflect the impact of seasonal influences.)

The all items CPI-U rose 1.1 percent for the 12 months ending in December. The index for all items less food and energy increased 1.2 percent over the past year, while the food index advanced 6.7 percent. In contrast, the energy index fell 8.5 percent over the past 12 months. (See chart 1 and table 1.)

  

View Chart Data

Chart 1. Over-the-year percent change in CPI-U, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL, December 2017–December 2020

Period	All items	All items less food and energy
Dec 2017	1.8	1.2
Feb 2017	3.2	3.3
Apr 2017	3.5	3.6
Jun 2017	4.2	4.2
Aug 2017	3.6	3.2
Oct 2017	3.4	3.9
Dec 2018	2.9	3.6
Feb 2018	1.2	2
Apr 2018	2.2	2.6
Jun 2018	1.2	2
Aug 2018	1.9	3
Oct 2018	1.5	2.4
Dec 2019	2	2.3
Feb 2019	1.4	1.6
Apr 2019	-0.5	0.5
Jun 2019	0.7	1.1
Aug 2019	1.4	1.5
Oct 2019	1	1.1
Dec 2020	1.1	1.2

Food

The food index declined 0.5 percent from October to December, reflecting declines in the food at home (-0.7 percent) and food away from home (-0.1 percent) indexes.

The food index advanced 6.7 percent for the 12 months ending in December, led by a 10.1-percent jump in the food at home index. The food away from home index also increased over the past 12 months, up 2.1 percent.  

Energy

The energy index edged up 0.2 percent from October to December, reflecting a 0.4-percent increase in the gasoline index. In contrast, the utility (piped) gas service index declined 0.4 percent over the bi-monthly period. The electricity index was unchanged from October to December.

The energy index fell 8.5 percent for the 12 months ending in December, led by a 12.8-percent decline in the gasoline index. The electricity index also declined, down 3.2 percent over the past 12 months, while the utility (piped) gas service index edged up 0.3 percent.

All items less food and energy

The index for all items less food and energy inched down 0.1 percent from October to December, led by declines in the apparel (-6.2 percent) and medical care (-0.9 percent) indexes. Shelter (0.5 percent) was among the indexes to increase over the bi-monthly period.

The index for all items less food and energy advanced 1.2 percent for the 12 months ending in December, reflecting a 2.7-percent increase in the shelter index.   

The Consumer Price Index for January 2021 is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, February 10, 2021.

Technical Note

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 population and (2) a CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) which covers 29 percent of the total 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 Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL, Core Based Statistical Area covered in this release is comprised of Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach Counties in Florida.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.