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 November 2017 data shows the Midwest inflation rate increased slightly from October to November for both larger metro areas (0.29 percent) and non-metro areas (0.19 percent). The smaller metropolitan areas noticed a -0.14 percent decrease.
The Producer Price Index data shows that prices in the United States have increased from November 2016 to November 2017 for aircraft (0.9 percent), slaughter livestock (13.3 percent), crude petroleum (33.7 percent), wheat (18.8 percent) and sorghum (14.7 percent). During that same time period, the index decreased for natural gas (-2.4 percent).