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 March 2017 data shows the Midwest inflation rate decreased from February to March. While the urban metropolitan areas noticed a -0.34% decrease, the non-metropolitan urban areas saw a smaller decrease of -.09%.
The Producer Price Index data shows that prices in the United States have increased from March 2016 to March 2017 for aircraft (0.6 percent), crude petroleum (36.0 percent), and natural gas (41.0 percent). During that same time period, the index decreased slaughter livestock (-5.8 percent), sorghum (-8.1 percent) and wheat (-7.6 percent).