> Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core CPI increased 5.9%, compared to the 5.7% estimate. I'm not an economist, and as a layman I'm confus

> Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core CPI increased 5.9%, compared to the 5.7% estimate. I'm not an economist, and as a layman I'm confused why they exclude something as 'core' as food and energy from core CPI; apparently 'core' is commodities like apparel, new vehicles, used vehicles, medicine, alcohol, and tobacco, and services like shelter, medical care, and transportation. Food is up 12% year-over-year, so not much more than the overall stat, the big contributor is petroleum products: Piped natural gas service is up 38%, gasoline commodities are up 60%, and fuel oil commodities up a whopping 98%. The chart at BLS.gov [1] is a decent way to explore these parameters; before submission to /r/dataisbeautiful I'd ask that the sub-levels should have slightly different colors for each bar (keep the 'green' for 'other' distinction, but use multiple shades of green), and that there was some indication at upper levels of the fraction from each sub-category. For example, energy services are listed at 19.4%, but only have two categories of electricity at 13.7 and natural gas piping at 38.4. The average of those two is 26%, which is larger than 19.4...for what reason? [1] https://www.bls.gov/charts/consumer-price-index/consumer-price-index-by-category.htm https://www.bls.gov/charts/consumer-price-index/consumer-pri...