May 17, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Consumer prices unchanged in April
On a seasonally
adjusted basis, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U)
was unchanged in April, following an increase of 0.7 percent in March. For
the 12-month period ended in April, the unadjusted CPI-U increased 3.1
percent.
[Chart data—TXT]
The energy index, which rose 4.9 percent in March, declined 1.9 percent
in April, registering its first decrease since last June. The index for
petroleum-based energy fell 4.1 percent, while the index for energy
services rose 0.5 percent. The food index rose 0.1 percent in April, the
same as in March.
Excluding food and energy, the CPI-U rose 0.2 percent in April,
following an increase of 0.4 percent in March. Shelter costs, which
increased 0.5 percent in March, rose 0.2 percent in April, accounting for
more than half of the April deceleration in the index for all items less
food and energy. Also contributing to the smaller rise in April was the
deceleration in the indexes for airline fares, for apparel, and for
household furnishings and operations.
These data are a product of the BLS Consumer
Price Index program.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
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Read more »