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What is the PCEPI?
The PCEPI - Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index
The PCEPI is an inflation measure (technically a deflator) based on just the Personal Consumption component of the Gross Domestic Product of the United States.
A common complaint about the CPI is that it understates year to year price changes. CPI actually tends to understate changes in price over longer ranges of time.
Since inflation should factor in when products are substituted and the PCE contains substitution by default, it is likely a better indicator to use over longer time periods. It's often more fair to use the PCEPI to determine the cost of goods in the past.
The PCE Price Index can be found on the web site of the St. Louis Federal Reserve [FRED]:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCEPI
PCE - Percent Change From Preceding Period in Prices for Personal Consumption Expenditures by Major Type of Product, Monthly
The Bureau of Economic Analysis has a table with updated values for the change in the Personal Consumption Expenditures. It shows all of the months of the current calendar year, and all the months of the prior calendar year. There are two tables which may be useful:
The tables are updated monthly during the last week of the month for the month prior.
