Inflation Gauges Don't Always Paint the Same Picture

Economists and investors rely on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index to track the path of inflation over time. The two indexes use different formulas and data sources — CPI gets data from consumers and PCE data comes from businesses. PCE is broader in scope and some expenditure categories are weighted very differently. In late 2022, the difference between annual inflation as measured by CPI and PCE was the widest it has been since the 1980s.