The Consumer Price Index is used to calculate inflation, or the change in price of a basket of goods and services, as it impacts consumers; whereas, the Producer Price Index measures changes in selling prices, thereby expressing price changes from the perspective of the seller who produces a particular commodity.
A slide presentation updated with May 2016 data shows the Midwest inflation rate saw both an increase and decrease from April to May. While the urban metropolitan areas noticed a 0.36% decrease, the non-metropolitan urban areas saw a 0.03% increase.
The Producer Price Index data shows that prices in the United States have increased from May 2015 to May 2016 for aircraft (0.9 percent). During that same time period, the index decreased crude petroleum (-32.8 percent), natural gas (-22.5 percent), slaughter livestock (-15.1 percent), sorghum (-19.4 percent) and wheat (-15.2 percent).