It’s Almost Like A 2% Inflation Target Since 1993

The chart above shows annual inflation since 1973, calculated from the BEA’s monthly personal consumption expenditures price index, less food and energy (data here), showing 15 years of extremely stable inflation at around 2%. In fact, it’s almost as if the Fed has been following a 2% inflation target since 1993 (based on this price index), and provides more evidence that core inflation is low and stable, and nothing like the inflationary 1970s.

Update: A few people have pointed out that CPI inflation (both core and overall) is calculated differently today by the BLS than in the 1970s, distorting a comparison of today’s inflation levels to those of that period. But core inflation calculated from the BEA’s “personal consumption price index, less food and energy” (see chart above and the post below) tells exactly the same story as the BLS’s core inflation: low and stable for the last ten years, and nothing close to the 1970s.

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