Inflation slowed its pace somewhat in December, largely on the back of falling gasoline costs, but prices in a range of other categories continued to push higher.
The overall pace of inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), clocked in at 6.5 percent year-over-year in December 2022, government data released on Jan. 12 showed (pdf). The month-over-month pace of inflation retreated by 0.1 percent.
Some, however, argue that the true rate of inflation is actually much higher, with certain components of the CPI measure—housing in particular—showing up in the numbers with a lag.
An alternative measure of inflation that uses the same methodology that the U.S. government used to measure CPI in the 1980s puts December’s inflation figure at a significantly higher 14.5 percent….