In: Finance
Chapter 16 Data Exploration Question #3: In 2012, the Federal Reserve announced an inflation objective of 2 percent “over the longer run” for the personal consumption expenditures price index (FRED code: PCEPI). However, many analysts focus on the “core” price index (FRED code: PCEPILFE), which omits the volatile food and energy components. For the Fed’s horizon, does this difference matter? Plot the percent change from a year ago for both inflation measures since 2000. Download the data and compute the averages and standard deviations over that period. What do you conclude?
% change in each year = (current year value - previous year value) / previous year value
Over this period, the average inflation (PCEPILFE) is slightly lower, and is less volatile. Yes, this difference matters.