A market basket or commodity bundle is a fixed list of items, in given proportions. Its most common use is to track the progress of inflation in an economy or specific market. That is, to measure the changes in the value of money over time. A market basket is also used with the theory of purchasing price parity to measure the value of money in different places.
The most common type of market basket is the basket of consumer goods used to define the Consumer Price Index (CPI). It is a sample of goods and services, offered at the consumer market.
In the United States, the sample is determined by Consumer Expenditure Surveys conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. [1] The price collection is conducted by data collectors on a monthly basis, and is processed further by commodity specialists. [2]
Examples of categories included in the basket are: [3]
Other types of baskets are used to define the Producer Price Index (PPI), previously known as the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), as well as various commodity price indices.
The GDP deflator essentially uses a basket made of every good in the economy, in proportion to the amount produced.
When measuring inflation or PPP, there are difficulties in selecting the goods that are common at both places in time (for inflation) or space (for PPP).
When measuring inflation, we must find goods that exist at different points in time and, ideally, have similar utility to consumers at those times. This is difficult. For example, cars might be common purchases today, but they didn't exist in 1900, when horses were used for transportation. So, even though transportation is important, putting a car in the basket is problematic. This problem exists over short timespans, because the concept of "car" changes with time. The cars of today last longer and go faster than the cars of only a few years ago. Researchers measuring inflation usually include "transportation" in their basket, because it is an important consumer purchase, but they must account for these differences in the transportation by other means.
When measuring PPP, there are similar issues. In different parts of the world, different goods might play similar roles in the economy. So, a researcher measuring PPP might need to account for rice's popularity in China and corn (maize)'s popularity in the USA. Also, fashion and culture may dictate that certain goods may have drastically different utilities in different places. For example, beef is not valued in Hindu areas and pork is not valued in Muslim areas.
Some approaches account for these differences by having two baskets and averaging the inflation or PPP of them. For example, a basket of goods consumers bought in 1900 and a separate basket of goods consumers buy today. After computing the price of each basket in 1900 and today, the inflation over the time period is an average of the increase in the two baskets. A common usage of this two-basket-averaging is the GDP deflator, where the basket contains every good produced in the economy at a given point in time.
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic health of a country or region. Definitions of GDP are maintained by several national and international economic organizations, such as the OECD and the International Monetary Fund.
In economics, inflation is a general increase in the prices of goods and services in an economy. This is usually measured using a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reduction in the purchasing power of money. The opposite of CPI inflation is deflation, a decrease in the general price level of goods and services. The common measure of inflation is the inflation rate, the annualized percentage change in a general price index. As prices faced by households do not all increase at the same rate, the consumer price index (CPI) is often used for this purpose.
Purchasing power parity (PPP) is a measure of the price of specific goods in different countries and is used to compare the absolute purchasing power of the countries' currencies. PPP is effectively the ratio of the price of a market basket at one location divided by the price of the basket of goods at a different location. The PPP inflation and exchange rate may differ from the market exchange rate because of tariffs, and other transaction costs.
In finance, an exchange rate is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another currency. Currencies are most commonly national currencies, but may be sub-national as in the case of Hong Kong or supra-national as in the case of the euro.
A consumer price index (CPI) is a price index, the price of a weighted average market basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households. Changes in measured CPI track changes in prices over time. The CPI is calculated by using a representative basket of goods and services. The basket is updated periodically to reflect changes in consumer spending habits. The prices of the goods and services in the basket are collected monthly from a sample of retail and service establishments. The prices are then adjusted for changes in quality or features. Changes in the CPI can be used to track inflation over time and to compare inflation rates between different countries. While the CPI is not a perfect measure of inflation or the cost of living, it is a useful tool for tracking these economic indicators.
In economics, the GDP deflator is a measure of the money price of all new, domestically produced, final goods and services in an economy in a year relative to the real value of them. It can be used as a measure of the value of money. GDP stands for gross domestic product, the total monetary value of all final goods and services produced within the territory of a country over a particular period of time.
The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) is the price of a representative basket of wholesale goods. Some countries use WPI changes as a central measure of inflation. But now India has adopted new CPI to measure inflation. However, United States now report a producer price index instead.
In economics, unit of account is one of the functions of money. A unit of account is a standard numerical monetary unit of measurement of the market value of goods, services, and other transactions. Also known as a "measure" or "standard" of relative worth and deferred payment, a unit of account is a necessary prerequisite for the formulation of commercial agreements that involve debt.
Real gross domestic product is a macroeconomic measure of the value of economic output adjusted for price changes. This adjustment transforms the money-value measure, nominal GDP, into an index for quantity of total output. Although GDP is total output, it is primarily useful because it closely approximates the total spending: the sum of consumer spending, investment made by industry, excess of exports over imports, and government spending. Due to inflation, GDP increases and does not actually reflect the true growth in an economy. That is why the GDP must be divided by the inflation rate to get the growth of the real GDP. Different organizations use different types of 'Real GDP' measures, for example, the UNCTAD uses 2015 Constant prices and exchange rates while the FRED uses 2009 constant prices and exchange rates, and recently the World Bank switched from 2005 to 2010 constant prices and exchange rates.
In economics, nominalvalue refers to value measured in terms of absolute money amounts, whereas real value is considered and measured against the actual goods or services for which it can be exchanged at a given time. Real value takes into account inflation and the value of an asset in relation to its purchasing power.
The PCE price index (PePP), also referred to as the PCE deflator, PCE price deflator, or the Implicit Price Deflator for Personal Consumption Expenditures by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and as the Chain-type Price Index for Personal Consumption Expenditures (CTPIPCE) by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), is a United States-wide indicator of the average increase in prices for all domestic personal consumption. It is benchmarked to a base of 2012 = 100. Using a variety of data including U.S. Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index prices, it is derived from the largest component of the GDP in the BEA's National Income and Product Accounts, personal consumption expenditures.
The general price level is a hypothetical measure of overall prices for some set of goods and services, in an economy or monetary union during a given interval, normalized relative to some base set. Typically, the general price level is approximated with a daily price index, normally the Daily CPI. The general price level can change more than once per day during hyperinflation.
In statistics, economics, and finance, an index is a statistical measure of change in a representative group of individual data points. These data may be derived from any number of sources, including company performance, prices, productivity, and employment. Economic indices track economic health from different perspectives. Examples include the consumer price index, which measures changes in retail prices paid by consumers, and the cost-of-living index (COLI), which measures the relative cost of living over time.
The Penn effect is the economic finding that commodity prices are higher in countries with higher income.
The United States Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a family of various consumer price indices published monthly by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The most commonly used indices are the CPI-U and the CPI-W, though many alternative versions exist for different uses. For example, the CPI-U is the most popularly cited measure of consumer inflation in the United States, while the CPI-W is used to index Social Security benefit payments.
The international dollar, also known as Geary–Khamis dollar, is a hypothetical unit of currency that has the same purchasing power parity that the U.S. dollar had in the United States at a given point in time. It is mainly used in economics and financial statistics for various purposes, most notably to determine and compare the purchasing power parity and gross domestic product of various countries and markets. The year 1990 or 2000 is often used as a benchmark year for comparisons that run through time. The unit is often abbreviated, e.g. 2000 US dollars or 2000 International$.
There are two different types of world currency unit in use today that have different origins and usages.
The Higher Education Price Index (HEPI) is a measure of the inflation rate applicable to United States higher education. HEPI measures the average relative level in the prices of a fixed market basket of goods and services typically purchased by colleges and universities through current-fund educational and general expenditures, excluding expenditures for research. Educational and general expenditures include the functions of instruction and departmental research, extension and public services, educational programs such as workshops and instructional institutes supported by sponsors outside the institution, student services, general administration and expenses, staff benefits, libraries, and operation and maintenance of the physical plant. Sponsored research, sales and services of education departments, and auxiliary enterprises are not priced by HEPI. The index is calculated on a fiscal year basis ending each June 30, by the Commonfund Institute, a branch of Commonfund, a non-profit organization devoted to the management of college and university endowments.
Inflation rate in India was 4.83% as of April 2024, as per the Indian Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. This represents a modest reduction from the previous figure of 5.69% for December 2023. CPI for the months of January, February and March 2024 are 5.10, 5.09 and 4.85 respectively. Inflation rates in India are usually quoted as changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), for all commodities.
This glossary of economics is a list of definitions of terms and concepts used in economics, its sub-disciplines, and related fields.
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