re: Grocery inflation

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I don’t. Learn me. Why shouldn’t monthly inflation numbers actually reflect what people are spending their money on?

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Most grocery items are commodities which can have large, rapid, price swings in both directions. Including them in the monthly inflation numbers would result in wildly variable numbers that would have little use in gauging the economy.

If beef spikes up 20% due to a disease scare and then drops back down to normal the following month it would give an inaccurate reading of the economy.

There is a very obvious trend which should be included in the numbers however. I'm sure some statisticians could figure out how to add the trend but they refuse to.

Economists look at more than a single chart anyway.