The Consumer Price Index measures the overall change in consumer prices based on a representative basket of goods and services over time.
The CPI is the most widely used indicator of inflation, closely monitored by politicians, financial markets, businesses and consumers.
The widely cited CPI is based on an index covering 93% of the US population, while a related index covering employees and clerical workers is used to adjust federal cost of living benefits.
The CPI is based on approximately 94,000 price quotations collected monthly from approximately 23,000 retail and service establishments and 43,000 rental units.
Housing rents are used to estimate the change in the value of housing, including owner-occupied housing, which accounts for almost a third of the CPI.
An economist is an expert who studies the relationship between a society’s resources and its production or output, using a number of different indicators to predict future trends.
An absolute advantage is when a manufacturer can provide a greater quantity of a product or service for the same price or the same quantity at a lower price than its competitors.
Animal spirits come from the Latin spiritus animalis: “breath that awakens the human mind.” It was introduced by the British economist John Maynard Keynes in 1936.
Autarky refers to a state of self-sufficiency and is commonly used to describe countries or economies that seek to reduce their dependence on international trade.
Automatic Stabilizers is a permanent government policy that automatically adjusts tax rates and transfers payments in a way that stabilizes income, consumption, and business spending over the business cycle.
The balance of trade (BOT) is the difference between the value of a country’s imports and exports over a given period and is the largest component of a country’s balance of payments (BOP).
“Best Effort” is a legal term that represents the obligation of a party to a contract to take all possible steps to fulfill the terms of the agreement.