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 December 2017 data shows the Midwest inflation rate decreased slightly from November to December for urban metro areas. The smaller non-metropolitan areas noticed a 0.20 percent increase.
The Producer Price Index data shows that prices in the United States have increased from December 2016 to December 2017 for aircraft (0.9 percent), slaughter livestock (7.5 percent), crude petroleum (14.5 percent), wheat (12.6 percent) and sorghum (13.6 percent). During that same time period, the index decreased for natural gas (-9.8 percent).