Underlying Inflation Gauge (UIG)

The UIG captures sustained movements in inflation from information contained in a broad set of price, real activity, and financial data.

March 2019: The New York Fed Staff UIG Measures
  • The UIG “full data set” measure decreased from a currently estimated 2.97% in January to 2.91% in February.
  • The “prices-only” measure decreased from 1.93% in January to 1.89% in February.
  • The twelve-month change in the February CPI was +1.5%, a 0.1 percentage point decline from January.
-The UIG measures currently estimate trend CPI inflation to be approximately in the 1.9% to 2.9% range. Both measures have declined since last summer, reflecting the softening of the CPI.

UIG Measures and 12-Month Change in the CPI
Source: Authors’ calculations, based on data accessed through Haver Analytics.

Note: The shaded areas indicate periods designated recessions by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Data Series
The “prices-only” underlying inflation gauge (UIG) is derived from a large number of disaggregated price series in the consumer price index (CPI), while the “full data set” measure incorporates additional macroeconomic and financial variables. For a list of the series employed, see the data appendix.


Related Reading
For an introduction, check out Amstad, Potter, and Rich, “Measuring Trend Inflation with the Underlying Inflation Gauge,” Liberty Street Economics, May 22, 2017.

For a more detailed account of our trend inflation measure, see Amstad, Potter, and Rich, “The New York Fed Staff Underlying Inflation Gauge (UIG),” Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review (September 2017).

An in-depth discussion of methodology is provided in Amstad, Potter, and Rich, “The New York Fed Staff Underlying Inflation Gauge (UIG),” Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports, no. 672 (April 2014) and Amstad and Potter, “Real Time Underlying Inflation Gauge for Monetary Policymakers,” Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports, no. 420 (December 2009).


2019 Releases *

January 11
February 13
March 22
April 10
May 10
June 21
July 11
August 13
September 20
October 10
November 13
December 13

* We generally update and publish the UIG at 2:30 p.m. on CPI release dates. If that date falls during a blackout period surrounding a Federal Open Market Committee meeting, we will publish at 10 a.m. on the first morning following the blackout.

How to cite this report: Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Underlying Inflation Gauge, https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/policy/underlying-inflation-gauge.
Archive
About the UIG
We share two monthly estimates of trend inflation. The first derives a measure from a large number of price series in the consumer price index (CPI) as well as macroeconomic and financial variables; the second employs the prices-only data set. For detailed information about our methodology, see the report and the references listed there.
The New York Fed Staff UIG measures are not official estimates of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, its president, the Federal Reserve System, or the Federal Open Market Committee.