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Market basket

The set of goods and services whose prices the CPI tracks, weighted by how much households spend on each.

The weights come from the Consumer Expenditure Surveys. Starting with January 2023 data, BLS updates them every year, based on spending from two years earlier. Source 1

An item's weight is its relative importance: its share of the total spending the CPI covers. Source 1

Related terms

Where it comes up

Sources

  1. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Relative importance and weight information for the Consumer Price Indexes (opens in a new tab)

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