Here’s a Graph: Consumer Prices They Are a Changin’

And here's also proof that Arizona tea is still the best deal on the block

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Oh, cool graph, but what is it?

This graph shows the average consumer prices of goods and services and how it’s changed since 1992.

So how exactly do we explain consumer pricing?

Every month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the Consumer Price Index, better known as CPI. It pretty much shows how much stuff costs — stuff like food and beverages, housing, and apparel. You might hear people mention something similar to “a basket of goods” a lot. They mean this: the average cost of each kind of item.

CPI is one of the important economic indicators, which means it helps show how the economy is doing. This indicator, in particular, shows if there’s inflation or deflation.
A 2 percent increase is expected, but if it’s more than that, the Federal Reserve might increase interest rates to slow down inflation. But, if there’s no growth at all or it seems to be too slow, they’ll do the opposite — decrease interest rates to get people to make more purchases and keep the economy growing.