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 September 2017 data shows the Midwest inflation rate increased slightly from August to September for both metro and non-metro areas. The larger metropolitan areas noticed a 0.49 percent increase, the smaller urban metropolitan areas noticed a 0.30 percent increase and the non-metropolitan urban areas saw an increase of 0.09 percent.
The Producer Price Index data shows that prices in the United States have increased from September 2016 to September 2017 for aircraft (0.8 percent), sorghum (17.9%), crude petroleum (10.3%) and wheat (21.3 percent). During that same time period, the index decreased for natural gas (-0.5 percent) slaughter livestock (-1.4 percent).