A Long Term Look At Inflation

 | Dec 16, 2015 12:42AM ET

The Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (CPI-U) released this morning puts the year-over-year inflation rate at 0.50%. It is substantially below the 3.81% average since the end of the Second World War and its 10-year moving average, now at 1.99%.

For a comparison of headline inflation with core inflation, which is based on the CPI excluding food and energy, see this monthly feature .

For better understanding of how CPI is measured and how it impacts your household, see our Inside Look at CPI components.

For an even closer look at how the components are behaving, see this X-Ray View of the data for the past six months.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has compiled CPI data since 1913, and numbers are conveniently available from the FRED repository (Click here for additional perspectives on inflation and the shrinking value of the dollar.