Consumer Price Index, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach – December 2020

News Release Information

21-67-ATL
Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Area prices up 1.1 percent over the year

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach declined 0.2 percent from October to December, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that the index for all items less food and energy inched down 0.1 percent over the bi-monthly period, while the food index declined 0.5 percent. In contrast, the energy index edged up 0.2 percent from October to December. (Data in this report are not seasonally adjusted. Accordingly, bi-monthly changes may reflect the impact of seasonal influences.)

The all items CPI-U rose 1.1 percent for the 12 months ending in December. The index for all items less food and energy increased 1.2 percent over the past year, while the food index advanced 6.7 percent. In contrast, the energy index fell 8.5 percent over the past 12 months. (See chart 1 and table 1.)

View Chart Data

Food

The food index declined 0.5 percent from October to December, reflecting declines in the food at home (-0.7 percent) and food away from home (-0.1 percent) indexes.

The food index advanced 6.7 percent for the 12 months ending in December, led by a 10.1-percent jump in the food at home index. The food away from home index also increased over the past 12 months, up 2.1 percent.

Energy

The energy index edged up 0.2 percent from October to December, reflecting a 0.4-percent increase in the gasoline index. In contrast, the utility (piped) gas service index declined 0.4 percent over the bi-monthly period. The electricity index was unchanged from October to December.

The energy index fell 8.5 percent for the 12 months ending in December, led by a 12.8-percent decline in the gasoline index. The electricity index also declined, down 3.2 percent over the past 12 months, while the utility (piped) gas service index edged up 0.3 percent.

All items less food and energy

The index for all items less food and energy inched down 0.1 percent from October to December, led by declines in the apparel (-6.2 percent) and medical care (-0.9 percent) indexes. Shelter (0.5 percent) was among the indexes to increase over the bi-monthly period.

The index for all items less food and energy advanced 1.2 percent for the 12 months ending in December, reflecting a 2.7-percent increase in the shelter index.

Month	2016		2017		2018		2019		2020
	2-month	12-month	2-month	12-month	2-month	12-month	2-month	12-month	2-month	12-month
February	0.2	1.6	1.3	4.0	2.6	3.2	1.0	1.2	0.4	1.4
April	0.7	1.4	-0.5	2.8	-0.1	3.5	0.8	2.2	-1.0	-0.5
June	0.6	1.6	-0.2	2.0	0.5	4.2	-0.5	1.2	0.7	0.7
August	0.0	1.6	0.3	2.3	-0.3	3.6	0.4	1.9	1.0	1.4
October	0.5	1.9	1.0	2.7	0.8	3.4	0.4	1.5	0.1	1.0
December	0.8	2.9	-0.1	1.8	-0.6	2.9	-0.2	2.0	-0.2	1.1

The Consumer Price Index for January 2021 is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, February 10, 2021.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic Impact on December 2020 Consumer Price Index Data

Data collection by personal visit for the Consumer Price Index (CPI) program has been suspended since March 16, 2020. When possible, data normally collected by personal visit were collected either online or by phone. Additionally, data collection in December was affected by the temporary closing or limited operations of certain types of establishments. These factors resulted in an increase in the number of prices considered temporarily unavailable and imputed. While the CPI program attempted to collect as much data as possible, many indexes are based on smaller amounts of collected prices than usual, and a small number of indexes that are normally published were not published this month. Additional information is available at www.bls.gov/covid19/effects-of-covid-19-pandemic-on-consumer-price-index.htm.

Technical Note

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change in prices over time in a fixed market basket of goods and services. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes CPIs for two population groups: (1) a CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) which covers approximately 93 percent of the total population and (2) a CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) which covers 29 percent of the total population. The CPI-U includes, in addition to wage earners and clerical workers, groups such as professional, managerial, and technical workers, the self-employed, short-term workers, the unemployed, and retirees and others not in the labor force.

The CPI is based on prices of food, clothing, shelter, and fuels, transportation fares, charges for doctors' and dentists' services, drugs, and the other goods and services that people buy for day-to-day living. Each month, prices are collected in 75 urban areas across the country from about 6,000 housing units and approximately 22,000 retail establishments-department stores, supermarkets, hospitals, filling stations, and other types of stores and service establishments. All taxes directly associated with the purchase and use of items are included in the index.

The index measures price changes from a designated reference date; for most of the CPI-U the reference base is 1982-84 equals 100. An increase of 7 percent from the reference base, for example, is shown as 107.000. Alternatively, that relationship can also be expressed as the price of a base period market basket of goods and services rising from $100 to $107. For further details see the CPI home page on the Internet at www.bls.gov/cpi and the CPI section of the BLS Handbook of Methods available on the internet at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cpi /.

In calculating the index, price changes for the various items in each location are averaged together with weights that represent their importance in the spending of the appropriate population group. Local data are then combined to obtain a U.S. city average. Because the sample size of a local area is smaller, the local area index is subject to substantially more sampling and other measurement error than the national index. In addition, local indexes are not adjusted for seasonal influences. As a result, local area indexes show greater volatility than the national index, although their long-term trends are quite similar. NOTE:Area indexes do not measure differences in the level of prices between cities; they only measure the average change in prices for each area since the base period.

The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL, Core Based Statistical Area covered in this release is comprised of Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach Counties in Florida.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: [phone]; Federal Relay Service: [phone].

Item and Group	Indexes			Percent change from-
	Oct. 2020	Nov. 2020	Dec. 2020	Dec. 2019	Oct. 2020	Nov. 2020
Expenditure category
All Items	274.193	-	273.774	1.1	-0.2	-
All items (November 1977=100)	441.961	-	441.286	-	-	-
Food and beverages	282.217	-	278.747	5.6	-1.2	-
Food	284.896	-	283.593	6.7	-0.5	-
Food at home	277.940	273.878	275.888	10.1	-0.7	0.7
Cereals and bakery products	322.948	-	315.277	12.1	-2.4	-
Meats, poultry, fish, and eggs	267.487	-	271.144	14.1	1.4	-
Dairy and related products	250.234	-	242.950	8.3	-2.9	-
Fruits and vegetables	364.852	-	346.464	4.2	-5.0	-
Nonalcoholic beverages and beverage materials	262.936	-	272.843	15.3	3.8	-
Other food at home	223.646	-	224.118	7.8	0.2	-
Food away from home	299.101	-	298.949	2.1	-0.1	-
Alcoholic beverages	-	-	220.721	-7.5	-	-
Housing	291.210	-	292.490	2.0	0.4	-
Shelter	336.448	337.226	338.167	2.7	0.5	0.3
Rent of primary residence	329.551	330.119	330.959	2.7	0.4	0.3
Owners' equiv. rent of residences	341.869	342.656	343.591	3.4	0.5	0.3
Owners' equiv. rent of primary residence	341.869	342.656	343.591	3.4	0.5	0.3
Fuels and utilities	177.944	-	177.904	-2.1	0.0	-
Household energy	148.259	148.202	148.240	-3.3	0.0	0.0
Energy services	145.771	145.765	145.757	-3.1	0.0	0.0
Electricity	142.735	142.735	142.735	-3.2	0.0	0.0
Utility (piped) gas service	182.384	182.070	181.593	0.3	-0.4	-0.3
Household furnishings and operations	168.902	-	169.185	-0.1	0.2	-
Apparel	146.245	-	137.118	-2.1	-6.2	-
Transportation	211.319	-	212.163	-4.3	0.4	-
Private transportation	219.273	-	221.883	-2.0	1.2	-
New and used motor vehicles	118.921	-	119.004	3.6	0.1	-
New vehicles	234.227	-	231.660	-1.8	-1.1	-
Used cars and trucks	327.894	-	319.163	9.2	-2.7	-
Motor fuel	195.119	187.114	196.014	-12.8	0.5	4.8
Gasoline (all types)	192.878	184.891	193.704	-12.8	0.4	4.8
Unleaded regular	188.774	180.622	189.788	-13.0	0.5	5.1
Unleaded midgrade	199.599	192.766	198.597	-11.6	-0.5	3.0
Unleaded premium	217.873	211.851	217.191	-11.2	-0.3	2.5
Motor vehicle insurance	816.803	-	883.119	-0.7	8.1	-
Medical Care	578.907	-	573.943	0.6	-0.9	-
Recreation	124.872	-	123.309	1.2	-1.3	-
Education and communication	123.347	-	122.641	-0.3	-0.6	-
Tuition, other school fees, and child care	1,022.718	-	1,021.799	0.9	-0.1	-
Other goods and services	360.165	-	363.068	0.1	0.8	-
Commodity and service group
All Items	274.193	-	273.774	1.1	-0.2	-
Commodities	207.387	-	203.480	-0.3	-1.9	-
Commodities less food & beverages	165.511	-	161.700	-3.8	-2.3	-
Nondurables less food & beverages	192.950	-	188.609	-6.3	-2.2	-
Durables	134.694	-	131.505	-0.3	-2.4	-
Services	325.233	-	327.159	1.6	0.6	-
Special aggregate indexes
All items less medical care	261.301	-	261.071	1.1	-0.1	-
All items less shelter	241.365	-	239.812	-0.1	-0.6	-
Commodities less food	168.595	-	164.057	-3.9	-2.7	-
Nondurables	238.317	-	234.259	-0.3	-1.7	-
Nondurables less food	196.410	-	190.650	-6.4	-2.9	-
Services less rent of shelter	317.340	-	319.594	0.0	0.7	-
Services less medical care services	306.179	-	308.346	1.6	0.7	-
Energy	169.246	165.597	169.640	-8.5	0.2	2.4
All items less energy	286.023	-	285.512	1.8	-0.2	-
All items less food and energy	286.644	-	286.237	1.2	-0.1	-
- Data not available. NOTE: Index applies to a month as a whole, not to any specific date. Data not seasonally adjusted.