December 17, 2007 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Consumer prices in November 2007

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.8 percent in November, its largest advance since a 1.2-percent rise in September 2005.

[Chart data—TXT]

The index for energy advanced 5.7 percent and accounted for nearly 70 percent of the overall CPI increase in November. The index for petroleum-based energy rose 9.5 percent and the index for energy services, 0.7 percent.

The food index rose 0.3 percent in November. The indexes for food at home and for food away from home each increased 0.3 percent.

The index for all items less food and energy advanced 0.3 percent in November, following increases of 0.2 percent in each of the preceding five months. In November, the index for shelter rose 0.3 percent after increasing 0.1 percent in October and the apparel index increased 0.8 percent.

For the 12 months ended in November 2007, the CPI-U rose 4.3 percent, as shown in the chart.

These data are from the BLS Consumer Price Index program. To learn more, see "Consumer Price Index: November 2007" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 07-1886.