---
ticker: "USCORECPISA"
title: "U.S. Seasonally Adjusted Core Consumer Price Index"
unit: "index"
frequency: "Monthly"
source: "Eckstein (1981); Bryan and Cecchetti (1994)"
release: "Updated Monthly"
category: "Consumer & Producer Prices"
country: "US"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://kred.dev/en/series/USCORECPISA"
license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/"
latest_value: 338.90
latest_date: "2026-09-01"
first_date: "1957-01-01"
observations_total: 836
observations_shown: 120
---

# U.S. Seasonally Adjusted Core Consumer Price Index

## Overview

The US consumer price index excluding food and energy, seasonally adjusted at source, the exclusion-based core companion to the all-items level.

## Key Figures

|  | Value | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Latest | 338.90 | 2026-09-01 |
| Change from previous | +1.13 | 2026-08-01 |
| Change over one year | +8.48 | 2025-09-01 |
| Highest on record | 338.90 | 2026-09-01 |
| Lowest on record | 28.50 | 1957-01-01 |
| Period covered | 1957-01-01 – 2026-09-01 |  |
| Observations | 836 |  |

## Recent observations

| Date | Value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2016-09-01 | 248.84 | +0.42 |
| 2016-10-01 | 249.14 | +0.30 |
| 2016-11-01 | 249.48 | +0.34 |
| 2016-12-01 | 249.92 | +0.44 |
| 2017-01-01 | 250.47 | +0.55 |
| 2017-02-01 | 251.00 | +0.53 |
| 2017-03-01 | 250.94 | -0.05 |
| 2017-04-01 | 251.23 | +0.28 |
| 2017-05-01 | 251.43 | +0.20 |
| 2017-06-01 | 251.75 | +0.32 |
| 2017-07-01 | 251.99 | +0.24 |
| 2017-08-01 | 252.53 | +0.55 |
| 2017-09-01 | 252.81 | +0.28 |
| 2017-10-01 | 253.53 | +0.71 |
| 2017-11-01 | 253.82 | +0.29 |
| 2017-12-01 | 254.34 | +0.53 |
| 2018-01-01 | 255.20 | +0.86 |
| 2018-02-01 | 255.71 | +0.51 |
| 2018-03-01 | 256.27 | +0.56 |
| 2018-04-01 | 256.63 | +0.36 |
| 2018-05-01 | 257.14 | +0.51 |
| 2018-06-01 | 257.40 | +0.25 |
| 2018-07-01 | 257.70 | +0.30 |
| 2018-08-01 | 257.89 | +0.19 |
| 2018-09-01 | 258.37 | +0.48 |
| 2018-10-01 | 258.92 | +0.55 |
| 2018-11-01 | 259.44 | +0.52 |
| 2018-12-01 | 260.06 | +0.62 |
| 2019-01-01 | 260.77 | +0.70 |
| 2019-02-01 | 261.19 | +0.42 |
| 2019-03-01 | 261.57 | +0.38 |
| 2019-04-01 | 262.00 | +0.43 |
| 2019-05-01 | 262.22 | +0.22 |
| 2019-06-01 | 262.74 | +0.52 |
| 2019-07-01 | 263.28 | +0.54 |
| 2019-08-01 | 263.88 | +0.60 |
| 2019-09-01 | 264.39 | +0.51 |
| 2019-10-01 | 264.97 | +0.58 |
| 2019-11-01 | 265.55 | +0.58 |
| 2019-12-01 | 266.02 | +0.47 |
| 2020-01-01 | 266.72 | +0.70 |
| 2020-02-01 | 267.37 | +0.65 |
| 2020-03-01 | 267.05 | -0.32 |
| 2020-04-01 | 265.75 | -1.31 |
| 2020-05-01 | 265.41 | -0.33 |
| 2020-06-01 | 265.85 | +0.44 |
| 2020-07-01 | 267.39 | +1.54 |
| 2020-08-01 | 268.42 | +1.03 |
| 2020-09-01 | 268.93 | +0.51 |
| 2020-10-01 | 269.31 | +0.37 |
| 2020-11-01 | 269.98 | +0.68 |
| 2020-12-01 | 270.34 | +0.36 |
| 2021-01-01 | 270.39 | +0.05 |
| 2021-02-01 | 270.79 | +0.41 |
| 2021-03-01 | 271.46 | +0.67 |
| 2021-04-01 | 273.66 | +2.20 |
| 2021-05-01 | 275.46 | +1.80 |
| 2021-06-01 | 277.65 | +2.19 |
| 2021-07-01 | 278.65 | +1.00 |
| 2021-08-01 | 279.00 | +0.35 |
| 2021-09-01 | 279.70 | +0.70 |
| 2021-10-01 | 281.67 | +1.97 |
| 2021-11-01 | 283.41 | +1.74 |
| 2021-12-01 | 285.18 | +1.77 |
| 2022-01-01 | 286.76 | +1.58 |
| 2022-02-01 | 288.27 | +1.52 |
| 2022-03-01 | 289.06 | +0.78 |
| 2022-04-01 | 290.51 | +1.46 |
| 2022-05-01 | 292.06 | +1.55 |
| 2022-06-01 | 294.05 | +1.99 |
| 2022-07-01 | 295.09 | +1.04 |
| 2022-08-01 | 296.54 | +1.45 |
| 2022-09-01 | 298.23 | +1.69 |
| 2022-10-01 | 299.40 | +1.17 |
| 2022-11-01 | 300.32 | +0.93 |
| 2022-12-01 | 301.39 | +1.07 |
| 2023-01-01 | 302.64 | +1.25 |
| 2023-02-01 | 304.12 | +1.48 |
| 2023-03-01 | 305.15 | +1.02 |
| 2023-04-01 | 306.53 | +1.39 |
| 2023-05-01 | 307.65 | +1.12 |
| 2023-06-01 | 308.32 | +0.67 |
| 2023-07-01 | 308.96 | +0.64 |
| 2023-08-01 | 309.58 | +0.62 |
| 2023-09-01 | 310.54 | +0.96 |
| 2023-10-01 | 311.46 | +0.92 |
| 2023-11-01 | 312.39 | +0.94 |
| 2023-12-01 | 313.19 | +0.80 |
| 2024-01-01 | 314.32 | +1.12 |
| 2024-02-01 | 315.56 | +1.25 |
| 2024-03-01 | 316.79 | +1.23 |
| 2024-04-01 | 317.65 | +0.86 |
| 2024-05-01 | 318.10 | +0.45 |
| 2024-06-01 | 318.39 | +0.29 |
| 2024-07-01 | 318.94 | +0.55 |
| 2024-08-01 | 319.75 | +0.81 |
| 2024-09-01 | 320.73 | +0.98 |
| 2024-10-01 | 321.73 | +1.00 |
| 2024-11-01 | 322.66 | +0.93 |
| 2024-12-01 | 323.26 | +0.60 |
| 2025-01-01 | 324.64 | +1.38 |
| 2025-02-01 | 325.46 | +0.83 |
| 2025-03-01 | 325.69 | +0.23 |
| 2025-04-01 | 326.47 | +0.78 |
| 2025-05-01 | 326.89 | +0.43 |
| 2025-06-01 | 327.66 | +0.77 |
| 2025-07-01 | 328.68 | +1.02 |
| 2025-08-01 | 329.70 | +1.02 |
| 2025-09-01 | 330.42 | +0.72 |
| 2025-11-01 | 331.04 | +0.63 |
| 2025-12-01 | 331.81 | +0.77 |
| 2026-01-01 | 332.79 | +0.98 |
| 2026-02-01 | 333.51 | +0.72 |
| 2026-03-01 | 334.17 | +0.65 |
| 2026-04-01 | 335.42 | +1.26 |
| 2026-05-01 | 336.12 | +0.70 |
| 2026-06-01 | 336.06 | -0.06 |
| 2026-07-01 | 336.79 | +0.72 |
| 2026-08-01 | 337.76 | +0.98 |
| 2026-09-01 | 338.90 | +1.13 |

## Definition

USCORECPISA is the seasonally adjusted consumer price index for all items less food and energy recorded as published, the monthly index-number level (1982–1984 = 100) that measures the average change over time in the prices consumers pay for a fixed basket from which the food and energy strata have been removed. The seasonal adjustment belongs to the measurement basis by which the published level comes to exist, and KRED adds nothing to it. The all-items basket from which those strata are deleted is itself compiled on both seasonal conventions and served as USCPISA and USCPI, so this level is the core counterpart of that headline pair rather than a revision of either.

This level is computed as a base-period-quantity-weighted aggregate over the strata that remain, and because the weights are held fixed across the entire comparison, movements in the index reflect price change alone rather than shifts in basket composition (Laspeyres 1871).

The current-period-weighted counterpart and the ideal index that is the geometric mean of the two bound the fixed-base level from above and below, and this ideal index satisfies the time- and factor-reversal tests (Paasche 1874; Fisher 1922). The expenditure-share-weighted log-change form gives the superlative approximation against which the fixed-basket level is read (Törnqvist 1936).

The quantity a consumer price index ultimately approximates is the true cost-of-living index, the expenditure ratio that holds household utility fixed, and an index over a reduced basket measures a subset of that concept (Konüs 1939). The target is made precise within the four-approach taxonomy of index-number theory (Diewert 2002), whose economic approach is grounded in the exact and superlative aggregators (Diewert 1976).

Because the basket is held fixed, the level departs from the cost-of-living target by the substitution and quality-change wedge and by measurement bias (Diewert 1998; Boskin et al. 1996), while the axiomatic consistency the construction does satisfy belongs to the test-approach lineage (Balk 1995).

Deleting the two most volatile strata before aggregation is the exclusion route to the underlying-inflation concept, which was first defined as the rate prevailing on the economy's long-run growth path once supply shocks are absent and demand is neutral (Eckstein 1981). The exclusion is done because those strata carry large transitory relative-price moves that dominate the headline print, and the same concept is framed elsewhere as trend plus transitory disturbance plus bias and identified structurally as the component with no long-run effect on real output (Cecchetti 1997; Quah and Vahey 1995). What the series reports is a level from which named strata are absent, and no claim about future headline inflation attaches to it.

## Methodology

KRED applies no transformation to USCORECPISA, loading the published index level as recorded with only a date parse and a reshape into the long store. It therefore performs no re-indexing, deflation, smoothing, annualizing, or year-over-year differencing, and neither the seasonal adjustment nor the deletion of strata is a KRED computation, since both already belong to the measurement basis by which the published level comes to exist.

That measurement basis is fixed-basket aggregation, where a base-period expenditure survey fixes the quantity weights and the price relatives of the remaining strata are combined into an index anchored at 1982–1984 = 100 (Laspeyres 1871).

The construction sits within the index-number framework whose alternatives are the current-weighted index, the symmetric ideal index, and the expenditure-share log-change index (Paasche 1874; Fisher 1922; Törnqvist 1936). The last two are the superlative formulas that are exact for flexible aggregators (Diewert 1976).

The four conceptual routes to the same number are the fixed-basket, test, stochastic, and economic approaches (Diewert 2002). The axiomatic properties this level satisfies are characterized within the test approach (Balk 1995), and the cost-of-living concept it targets is defined as the expenditure ratio that holds utility fixed (Konüs 1939).

The gap between the fixed-base level and that economic target consists of substitution bias and broader measurement bias, and because the series is served exactly as measured, KRED does not correct it (Diewert 1998; Boskin et al. 1996).

The core variant is obtained by deleting the food and energy strata from the basket before aggregation, which makes the published value an exclusion estimator of underlying inflation (Eckstein 1981; Cecchetti 1997). That estimator is distinct from the limited-influence estimators, which keep every stratum and discard the extreme realizations of the current cross-section instead, with the amount discarded set by the kurtosis of the price-change distribution (Bryan and Cecchetti 1994; Bryan, Cecchetti, and Wiggins 1997), and distinct again from the structural identification that defines the underlying component by its long-run neutrality for real output (Quah and Vahey 1995). None of these constructions are applied to USCORECPISA itself, which remains at the recorded level.

## Applications in Economics

As a measure of consumer prices net of two volatile strata, the index is read against the cost-of-living concept that any consumer price measure approximates, and its usefulness as a policy reference turns on how closely a fixed-basket level tracks that concept (Konüs 1939).

The core reading remains an upward-biased proxy for welfare-relevant inflation, since the fixed-base level overstates true cost-of-living growth by a substitution wedge and the combined commodity-substitution, outlet, quality-change, and new-goods bias widens that wedge (Laspeyres 1871; Diewert 1998; Boskin et al. 1996).

The exclusion of food and energy is one resolution of the underlying-inflation measurement problem, which frames measured inflation as trend plus transitory disturbance plus bias and defines the underlying rate as the one prevailing on the economy's long-run growth path (Cecchetti 1997; Eckstein 1981).

The competing resolutions keep the full basket and act on the cross-section instead, either through the limited-influence estimators and the optimally trimmed means (Bryan and Cecchetti 1994; Bryan, Cecchetti, and Wiggins 1997) or through the structural identification of the component with no long-run effect on real output (Quah and Vahey 1995), and the three routes need not agree in any given month. The trend extracted by the unobserved-components stochastic-volatility model is a further construction of the same concept (Stock and Watson 2007).

Because the level is seasonally adjusted at source, its month-on-month change is read directly as a rate of price change rather than only against a year-earlier comparison, and reading it beside the all-items level separates the contribution of the deleted strata. Both readings rest on the reasoning that lets a single consumer price level anchor expectations across the economy (Diewert 2002), and on the exact and superlative aggregators that define what such a level is (Diewert 1976).

## Applications in Financial Markets

For asset pricing a consumer price level is the deflator that converts nominal cash flows into real terms, and index-number theory formalizes this operation through the time- and factor-reversal tests that a deflator should satisfy (Fisher 1922). The base-quantity weights, their current-weighted dual, and the expenditure-share log-change form bound the deflation error (Laspeyres 1871; Paasche 1874; Törnqvist 1936).

Inflation-linked bonds, inflation swaps, and breakeven quotes settle on the all-items basket rather than on a core variant, so the core level enters the analysis as a read on the persistent component and not as a settlement reference, while the substitution and quality-change wedge attributed to a fixed-base index is priced into the basis between indexed and nominal instruments (Diewert 1998; Boskin et al. 1996).

What such a contract settles on is the published fixed-basket level and not the superlative cost-of-living target that level approximates, and that distinction is what the index-number literature makes precise (Diewert 1976, 2002). Axiomatic consistency governs whether successive vintages chain coherently (Balk 1995).

For relative-value and macro positioning the persistent component matters more than the monthly print, which is exactly what the exclusion is meant to isolate, so the core level is read alongside the limited-influence gauges and the extracted trend (Cecchetti 1997; Bryan and Cecchetti 1994; Stock and Watson 2007). The cost-of-living anchor frames the long-horizon real-return target (Konüs 1939).

## Statistical Tests

USCORECPISA is published as a seasonally-adjusted monthly index level of consumer prices less food and energy, and the statistical object is that published level, expected to be integrated of order one. The sample is 833 monthly observations spanning 1957-01-01 to 2026-06-01, and the unit-root triplet is fitted on the level with a constant and trend.

The augmented Dickey-Fuller regression of Dickey and Fuller (1979), in the lag-augmented form of Said and Dickey (1984) with lag length set as in Ng and Perron (2001), does not reject the unit root with a statistic of −1.6969 at p = 0.7523, the nonparametric test of Phillips and Perron (1988) concurs with a statistic of −0.8027 at p = 0.9655, and the stationarity-null test rejects trend stationarity with a statistic of 0.5335 at p < 0.01 (Kwiatkowski et al. 1992), so the three procedures concur on a clean I(1) classification. The GLS-detrended escalation of Elliott, Rothenberg, and Stock (1996) is reserved for ambiguous outcomes and is not required on this clean reading.

On a clean integrated reading the level is not the stationary object, so the portmanteau and the break search are run on the first difference, since a level portmanteau reads the near-unit autocorrelation of a stochastic trend and a level mean-break search spuriously segments it (Perron 1989; Hamilton 2018; Bai and Perron 1998). The portmanteau statistic of Ljung and Box (1978), refining the form of Box and Pierce (1970), rejects the white-noise null on the differenced level at lags 12 and 24, with Q = 3540.35 and Q = 5521.68 and p = 0.000 in both cases. The multiple-break procedure of Bai and Perron (1998), computed by the dynamic-programming algorithm of Bai and Perron (2003), locates three mean shifts in the differenced series, at 1974-02-01, 1993-06-01, and 2016-02-01.

The index is seasonally adjusted at source, so under the platform convention whatever the seasonal battery detects is attributed to that adjustment and its revisions and is never presented as a KRED discovery (Ghysels and Osborn 2001). The seasonal-unit-root test of Hylleberg et al. (1990), with the monthly mechanics of Beaulieu and Miron (1993), is run on the level and rejects unit roots at the seasonal frequencies with a statistic of 11160.1468 at p = 0.000, so any seasonal signal that survives the adjustment is deterministic rather than stochastic. The seasonal portmanteau leg is the cumulative statistic through lag 24 on the first difference, 5521.678, numerically the lag-24 rung already reported rather than an independent second test, and it rejects the no-autocorrelation null at p = 0.000, while the joint test of monthly dummies on the first difference does not reject, with F = 0.4231 at p = 0.94624. The battery therefore disagrees with the adjusted designation the series carries, and the disagreement is stated as it stands, the series being neither declared seasonally clean nor credited with a newly found seasonal pattern. The reverse-null seasonal-stationarity test of Canova and Hansen (1995) is optional under the matrix and was not computed for this member.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### What does the US price panel include?

The United States price panel, comprising headline and core consumer and producer price indices, the personal consumption expenditure price indices, and three limited-influence inflation measures.

### Are the limited-influence inflation measures published as index levels?

No. They are published as twelve-month rates, so placing them on the same axis as the index levels in this group misreads both.

### Do the US limited-influence inflation gauges all measure the same thing?

No. They are separate estimands, differing in the underlying price index as well as in the rule for which part of the distribution to set aside. Proximity between any two of them is not corroboration and divergence is not an error in any.