Consumer Price Index – How the Percent Change is Calculated
Movements of the indexes from one period to another are usually expressed as percent changes rather than changes in index points because index point changes are affected by the level of the index in relation to its base period while percent changes are not. This example illustrates the computation of index points and percent changes
Step 1
Calculating the index point change:
CPI for Anchorage 2015 | 216.909 |
Less CPI for previous period – Anchorage 2014 | -215.805 |
Equals index point change | 1.104 |
Step 2
Calculating the percent change:
Index point difference divided by the previous CPI | 1.104/215.805 = 0.0051157 |
Result multiplied by 100 and rounded | 0.5 |