Economics
U.S. to Change Measure of Car Inflation Using J.D. Power Data
- 2021 inflation would have been 0.12 ppt higher in new gauge
- It will be first part of CPI to use real-time transaction data
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The already-high U.S. inflation gauge would have been even higher in 2021 according to a new measure of car prices that the Bureau of Labor Statistics plans to start using later this year.
The BLS will replace its internally collected prices of new cars and trucks with data from J.D. Power, starting with the April consumer-price index that will be released in May. The new gauge will be the first component of the CPI that’s based entirely on transaction data, allowing real-time weighting based on what kind of vehicles consumers are actually choosing.