How the government tracks inflation, one product at a time
How the government tracks inflation, one product at a time
(NewsNation) — Sheila Freund goes to a lot of stores — about 10 per day for the past 20 years. But she isn’t there to shop. She collects data that helps inform financial policy decisions across the world.
Freund is one of more than 400 economic assistants for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, whose work determines the Consumer Price Index, or CPI — the most common measure of inflation.
The CPI does…