March 8, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Consumer prices rose 1.7 percent in
the Northeast in 1998
In the Northeast region, the Consumer Price
Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 1.7 percent from December 1997 to December
1998, about in line with the national rise of 1.6 percent. The Northeast CPI had risen 1.6
percent in 1997. The CPI-U measures price changes for goods and services purchased by
consumers in metropolitan areas.
![Annual changes in Northeast CPI (All Urban Consumers) and components, 1998](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120925085705im_/http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/images/1999/Mar/wk2/art01.gif)
[Chart data—TXT]
In the Northeast, larger increases in food and beverages, medical care, and other goods
and services were partially offset by downturns for apparel and transportation, as well as
smaller price increases for housing.
The food and beverage index rose 2.8 percent in 1998, while medical care increased 4.3
percent. Other goods and services rose 8.3 percent, reflecting in part the pass-through to
retail of a 45-cents-per-pack increase in the wholesale price of cigarettes. The housing
index—which accounts for over 40 percent of expenditures—rose 2.1 percent after
a 2.3-percent increase in 1997. The transportation index fell 2.5 percent, and the apparel
index declined 1.7 percent over the year.
These data are produced by the BLS Consumer Price
Index program. More information can be obtained in news release USDL 99-016,
"Consumer
Prices in the Northeast: December 1998." Annual comparisons are based on changes
in indexes from December 1997 to December 1998.
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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