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| This is the basket of goods used to determine the CPI
Eight major groups and examples of categories in each follow:
Food and beverages (breakfast cereal, milk, coffee, chicken, wine, full service meals, snacks)
Housing (rent of primary residence, owners' equivalent rent, utilities, bedroom furniture)
Apparel (men's shirts and sweaters, women's dresses, baby clothes, shoes, jewelry)
Transportation (new vehicles, airline fares, gasoline, motor vehicle insurance)
Medical care (prescription drugs, medical equipment and supplies, physicians' services, eyeglasses and eye care, hospital services)
Recreation (televisions, toys, pets and pet products, sports equipment, park and museum admissions)
Education and communication (college tuition, postage, telephone services, computer software and accessories)
Other goods and services (tobacco and smoking products, haircuts and other personal services, funeral expenses)
Additionally, for analytical purposes, the CPI is also divided into food, energy, and all items less food and energy. The CPI for all items less food and energy gets considerable attention as a measure of underlying core inflation, which is not subject to the volatile movements of food and energy prices. A third structure separates the CPI into commodities and services, with commodities further divided into durables and nondurables. All three structures are comprehensive, with the subcomponents in each structure aggregating to the all items index. | |
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Is the Economy good or bad??
