FIGURE 2-3: Three Measures of Inflation This figure shows the percentage change in the CPI, the GDP deflator, and the PCE deflator for every year from 1948 to 2013. These measures of prices diverge at times, but they usually tell the same story about how quickly prices are rising. Both the CPI and the GDP deflator show that prices rose slowly in most of the 1950s and 1960s, that they rose much more quickly in the 1970s, and that they have risen slowly again since the mid-1980s.

Data from: U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Labor.