BLS U S Bureau of Labor Statistics : Consumer Price Index, West Region — December 2020

News Release Information

21-43-SAN
Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Area prices were down 0.1 percent over the past month, up 1.5 percent from a year ago

Prices in the West Region, as measured by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), edged down 0.1 percent in December, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. (See table A.) The December decrease was influenced by lower prices for apparel and recreation. (Data in this report are not seasonally adjusted. Accordingly, month-to-month changes may reflect seasonal influences.)

Over the last 12 months, the CPI-U advanced 1.5 percent. (See chart 1 and table A.) This is the ninth consecutive month of year over increases less than 2.0 percent. The index for all items less food and energy increased 1.5 percent over the year. Food prices rose 5.2 percent. Energy prices declined 7.5 percent, largely the result of a decrease in the price of gasoline. (See table 1.)

Food

Food prices advanced 0.5 percent for the month of December. (See table 1.) Prices for food at home advanced 0.7 percent, and prices for food away from home edged up 0.2 percent for the same period.

Over the year, food prices rose 5.2 percent. Prices for both food at home and prices for food away from home rose 5.2 percent since a year ago.

Energy

The energy index crept up 0.2 percent over the month. The increase was mainly due to higher prices for gasoline (0.2 percent). Prices for natural gas service advanced 0.7 percent, while prices for electricity were unchanged for the same period.

Energy prices declined 7.5 percent over the year, largely due to lower prices for gasoline (-16.3 percent). Prices paid for natural gas service increased 7.6 percent, and prices for electricity rose 4.8 percent during the past year.

All items less food and energy

The index for all items less food and energy inched down 0.2 percent in December. Lower prices for apparel (-2.7 percent), recreation (-0.9 percent), and medical care (-0.3 percent) were partially offset by higher prices for new vehicles (1.0 percent) and other goods and services (0.3 percent).

Over the year, the index for all items less food and energy increased 1.5 percent. Components contributing to the increase included household furnishings and operations (4.8 percent), new and used motor vehicles (4.3 percent), and shelter (1.6 percent). Partly offsetting the increases were price decreases in motor vehicle insurance (-5.6 percent) and apparel (-3.4 percent).

Month	2016		2017		2018		2019		2020
	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	2.5	0.5	3.1	0.2	2.7	0.3	2.9
February	0.1	2.1	0.6	3.0	0.5	3.1	0.2	2.4	0.4	3.1
March	0.2	1.5	0.3	3.1	0.4	3.2	0.4	2.4	-0.2	2.5
April	0.5	1.8	0.3	2.9	0.4	3.2	0.8	2.9	-0.4	1.3
May	0.5	1.5	0.2	2.6	0.5	3.5	0.5	2.9	0.1	0.8
June	0.2	1.6	0.0	2.5	0.2	3.6	0.0	2.7	0.4	1.2
July	0.1	1.4	0.1	2.5	0.1	3.6	0.0	2.7	0.5	1.7
August	0.0	1.5	0.2	2.7	0.2	3.6	0.1	2.6	0.3	1.9
September	0.3	2.0	0.5	2.9	0.3	3.4	0.3	2.6	0.0	1.6
October	0.3	2.3	0.3	2.9	0.4	3.5	0.5	2.8	0.2	1.2
November	-0.2	2.3	0.0	3.1	-0.2	3.3	-0.1	2.8	0.0	1.4
December	0.0	2.5	0.1	3.1	-0.2	3.1	-0.2	2.8	-0.1	1.5

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

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic Impact on December 2020 Consumer Price Index Data

Data collection by personal visit for the Consumer Price Index (CPI) program has been suspended since March 16, 2020. When possible, data normally collected by personal visit were collected either online or by phone. Additionally, data collection in December was affected by the temporary closing or limited operations of certain types of establishments. These factors resulted in an increase in the number of prices considered temporarily unavailable and imputed.

While the CPI program attempted to collect as much data as possible, many indexes are based on smaller amounts of collected prices than usual, and a small number of indexes that are normally published were not published this month. Additional information is available at https://www.bls.gov/covid19/effects-of-covid-19-pandemic-on-consumer-price-index.htm.

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/cpiand 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 West Region covered in this release is comprised of the following thirteen states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: [phone]; Federal Relay Service: [phone].

Item and Group	Indexes			Percent change from-
	Oct. 2020	Nov. 2020	Dec. 2020	Dec. 2019	Oct. 2020	Nov. 2020
Expenditure category
All Items	276.876	276.875	276.593	1.5	-0.1	-0.1
All items (December 1977=100)	447.555	447.552	447.097
Food and beverages	280.616	279.784	280.962	5.2	0.1	0.4
Food	281.114	280.006	281.330	5.2	0.1	0.5
Food at home	263.830	261.562	263.334	5.2	-0.2	0.7
Cereals and bakery products	272.534	267.946	269.442	2.8	-1.1	0.6
Meats, poultry, fish, and eggs	277.137	279.246	279.407	7.3	0.8	0.1
Dairy and related products	245.132	247.654	249.450	5.6	1.8	0.7
Fruits and vegetables	353.422	343.848	345.758	4.3	-2.2	0.6
Nonalcoholic beverages and beverage materials	186.157	186.217	188.808	8.1	1.4	1.4
Other food at home	221.543	217.966	220.154	4.0	-0.6	1.0
Food away from home	303.505	303.997	304.699	5.2	0.4	0.2
Alcoholic beverages	270.735	273.357	272.690	5.1	0.7	-0.2
Housing	308.892	308.596	308.596	2.1	-0.1	0.0
Shelter	356.345	356.170	356.259	1.6	0.0	0.0
Rent of primary residence	380.975	381.102	381.592	1.9	0.2	0.1
Owners' equiv. rent of residences	375.910	375.921	376.555	1.9	0.2	0.2
Owners' equiv. rent of primary residence	375.899	375.899	376.521	1.8	0.2	0.2
Fuels and utilities	321.045	318.237	318.685	4.5	-0.7	0.1
Household energy	271.279	267.499	267.916	5.4	-1.2	0.2
Energy services	273.675	269.487	269.870	5.4	-1.4	0.1
Electricity	305.498	301.284	301.284	4.8	-1.4	0.0
Utility (piped) gas service	214.914	210.442	211.838	7.6	-1.4	0.7
Household furnishings and operations	138.343	138.617	138.186	4.8	-0.1	-0.3
Apparel	114.301	112.429	109.417	-3.4	-4.3	-2.7
Transportation	211.599	212.040	211.613	-3.2	0.0	-0.2
Private transportation	208.300	208.483	209.457	-2.5	0.6	0.5
New and used motor vehicles	102.645	103.300	103.780	4.3	1.1	0.5
New vehicles	149.673	149.975	151.498	2.4	1.2	1.0
New cars and trucks	103.950	104.147	105.216	2.4	1.2	1.0
New cars	147.834	148.081	149.827	2.2	1.3	1.2
Used cars and trucks	147.731	146.016	145.018	10.0	-1.8	-0.7
Motor fuel	226.601	223.629	224.302	-16.3	-1.0	0.3
Gasoline (all types)	225.976	222.923	223.441	-16.3	-1.1	0.2
Gasoline, unleaded regular	222.260	219.156	219.641	-16.7	-1.2	0.2
Gasoline, unleaded midgrade	220.112	218.198	218.122	-15.0	-0.9	0.0
Gasoline, unleaded premium	226.711	223.957	224.743	-14.4	-0.9	0.4
Motor vehicle insurance	783.498	785.488	796.456	-5.6	1.7	1.4
Medical Care	540.015	539.106	537.478	1.3	-0.5	-0.3
Medical care commodities	424.610	423.166	420.843	-3.2	-0.9	-0.5
Medical care services	575.649	574.911	573.504	2.4	-0.4	-0.2
Professional services	365.995	365.380	364.747	1.4	-0.3	-0.2
Recreation	116.023	117.628	116.617	0.4	0.5	-0.9
Education and communication	140.777	141.387	141.355	2.5	0.4	0.0
Tuition, other school fees, and child care	1,512.115	1,513.933	1,513.978	1.3	0.1	0.0
Other goods and services	458.694	459.954	461.308	1.6	0.6	0.3
Commodity and Service Group
All Items	276.876	276.875	276.593	1.5	-0.1	-0.1
Commodities	191.257	190.633	190.461	1.5	-0.4	-0.1
Commodities less food & beverages	148.113	147.598	146.924	-1.0	-0.8	-0.5
Nondurables less food & beverages	188.327	186.996	185.582	-5.8	-1.5	-0.8
Nondurables less food, beverages, and apparel	240.436	239.460	239.120	-6.6	-0.5	-0.1
Durables	109.913	109.943	109.782	4.6	-0.1	-0.1
Services	356.485	357.159	356.772	1.4	0.1	-0.1
Rent of shelter	379.501	379.313	379.409	1.6	0.0	0.0
Transportation services	302.720	308.576	304.439	-4.4	0.6	-1.3
Other services	367.046	370.056	368.948	1.8	0.5	-0.3
Special aggregate indexes:
All items less medical care	264.901	264.938	264.713	1.5	-0.1	-0.1
All items less food	276.327	276.506	275.961	0.9	-0.1	-0.2
All items less shelter	245.697	245.763	245.337	1.4	-0.1	-0.2
Commodities less food	152.582	152.149	151.471	-0.7	-0.7	-0.4
Nondurables	234.389	233.294	233.136	0.4	-0.5	-0.1
Nondurables less food	194.395	193.319	191.949	-4.9	-1.3	-0.7
Nondurables less food and apparel	243.316	242.722	242.348	-5.3	-0.4	-0.2
Services less rent of shelter	367.120	368.966	367.921	1.3	0.2	-0.3
Services less medical care services	341.212	341.980	341.661	1.3	0.1	-0.1
Energy	249.409	246.044	246.618	-7.5	-1.1	0.2
All items less energy	281.074	281.300	280.958	2.1	0.0	-0.1
All items less food and energy	281.857	282.323	281.681	1.5	-0.1	-0.2
Commodities less food and energy commodities	144.027	143.829	143.016	2.3	-0.7	-0.6
Energy commodities	231.195	228.422	229.130	-16.1	-0.9	0.3
Services less energy services	362.649	363.601	363.169	1.3	0.1	-0.1
- Data not available Regions defined as the four Census regions. West includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. NOTE: Index applies to a month as a whole, not to any specific date. Data not seasonally adjusted.