January 21, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

CPI up 3.3 percent in 2004

For the 12-month period ended in December 2004, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 3.3 percent. This compares with an increase of 1.9 percent in all of 2003.

[Chart data—TXT]

In 2004, the index for energy rose 16.6 percent, its largest annual increase since an 18.1-percent rise in 1990, and accounted for about 36 percent of the overall advance in the CPI-U.

The food index, which rose 3.6 percent in 2003, increased 2.7 percent in 2004. The index for food at home rose 2.4 percent in 2004, following a 4.5-percent increase in 2003. A smaller increase in the index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs—up 1.1 percent in 2004 after increasing 11.5 percent in 2003—was largely responsible for the moderation.

Excluding food and energy, the CPI-U advanced 2.2 percent in 2004, compared with a 1.1-percent rise in all of 2003.

These data are from the BLS Consumer Price Index program. For more information, see "Consumer Price Index: December 2004" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 05-99.