Inflation & Prices
Risk of Big US Inflation Revision Puts Policymakers, Investors on Edge
- Fed’s Waller spotlights annual updates to CPI seasonal factors
- Bureau of Labor Statistics set to release new figures Friday
The Bureau of Labor Statistics regularly adjusts monthly CPI data to remove seasonal factors that affect the numbers.
Photographer: Angus Mordant/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Mention the government’s annual revisions to seasonal adjustment factors for monthly inflation data and you’re likely to make eyes glaze over, even among hardcore economics nerds. Not this year.
Economists on Wall Street and in Washington will be tuning in for this year’s update, due Friday morning, because of what happened a year ago: The revisions to the consumer price index — typically small and therefore ignored — were large enough to cast doubt on overall inflation progress.