Healthcare and Housing Prices See Biggest 12-Month Hike

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 0.4 percent in October on a seasonally adjusted basis, meaning that a pre-defined basket of goods and services became 0.4 percent more expensive compared to the preceding month. That’s according to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday, which shows that consumer prices for urban consumers have risen 1.8 percent over the past 12 months.

The following chart breaks down the CPI-U into its eight components, showing that medical care and housing prices saw the biggest increases since October 2018, with the respective sub-indices rising by 4.3 and 2.9 percent, respectively. Meanwhile transportation and apparel were the only spending categories that saw prices decline over the past year.

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers comprises of eight categories, each assigned a specific weight within the index in correspondence to its share of actual consumer spending. In September 2019, Housing had the biggest influence on the overall Index with a weight of 42.3 percent, followed by Transportation (16.4 percent) and Food & Beverages (14.2 percent).