Consumer price index (CPI) is a measure of the price of a fixed basket of consumer goods, which mainly reflects the price changes of goods and services paid by consumers. It is also a tool to measure the level of inflation, expressed as a percentage change.
1, Inflation rate, also known as price change rate _2]_, is the ratio of excess money to actually needed money, reflecting the degree of inflation and currency depreciation. In economics, the inflation rate is: the increase of the average price level (affected by inflation). Take a balloon for example. If its volume is the price level, the inflation rate is the inflation degree of the balloon. In other words, the inflation rate is the degree of decline in the purchasing power of money.
In practice, inflation is not directly calculated, but indirectly expressed through the growth rate of price index. Because the consumer price reflects the final price formed by commodity circulation, it reflects the money demand in commodity circulation most comprehensively. Therefore, the consumer price index is a price index that can comprehensively and comprehensively reflect the inflation rate. All countries in the world basically use the consumer price index (China's consumer price index), that is, CPI, to reflect the degree of inflation.
3. Inflation rate is usually expressed indirectly by the growth rate of price index. If the price index growth rate is greater than zero, it means that there is inflation; If the growth rate of the price index is less than zero, it indicates deflation. When measuring the inflation rate, we need to choose a price index to represent the change of the general price level. The available price indexes mainly include: wholesale price index, retail price index, consumer price index and GDP price index. Most countries regard consumer price index as an indicator to measure inflation, and formulate monetary policy and related macroeconomic policies according to the changes of consumer price index, so as to achieve the macroeconomic goal of stabilizing prices.