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CPI Data Quality Declining

July 21, 2025 |

CPI Data Quality Declining
June 20, 2025
Torsten Sløk
Apollo Chief Economist

To calculate CPI inflation, BLS teams collect about 90,000 price quotes every month covering 200 different item categories, and there are several hundred field collectors active across 75 urban areas.

When data is not available, BLS staff typically develop estimates for approximately 10% of the cells in the CPI calculation. However, in May, the share of data in the CPI that is estimated increased to 30%, see chart below.

In other words, almost a third of the prices going into the CPI at the moment are guesses based on other data collections in the CPI.

Bill Rafter writes:

Would anyone in the data business be surprised by this? I’m not.

Peter Ringel wonders:

Doge related?

Big Al offers:

US Labor Department reducing CPI collection sample amid hiring freeze
By Reuters
June 4, 2025

The U.S. Labor Department's economic statistics arm said on Wednesday it was reducing the Consumer Price Index collection sample in areas across the country due to resource constraints, but the move should have "minimal impact" on the overall CPI data.


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