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 August 2017 data shows the Midwest inflation rate dropped slightly from July to August for larger urban metropolitan areas. The smaller urban metropolitan areas noticed a 0.21% increase and the non-metropolitan urban areas saw an increase of 0.11%.
The Producer Price Index data shows that prices in the United States have increased from August 2016 to August 2017 for aircraft (0.7 percent), natural gas (14.2 percent), sorghum (6.2%), crude petroleum (18.9%) and wheat (13.8 percent). During that same time period, the index decreased for slaughter livestock (-0.9%).