Modern inflation

Last week the US government released the Consumer Price Index again, the most commonly used measure for inflation. Annual inflation came in at 4.05%. However, some argue the governments methodology is outdated: it collects datapoints through telephone calls, in-person and online visits from consumers and businesses. Also, inflation rate data is published once a month, whereas prices change more frequently. To address these issues, data analytics company Truflation collects data from over 30 providers such as NielsenIQ, Kantar and Zillow and calculates the rate of inflation and publishes it daily. Truflation’s rate of inflation stood at 2.87% in May compared to the government's 4.05% and Truflation thinks inflation has since decreased to 2.39% as of today.

Source: Truflation, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023.