The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services.

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Report the most current credential/document number on file. If a valid credential/document number was reported in a prior year, it is not necessary to update this information each year.

The CPI is a product of a series of interrelated samples. First, using data from the 1990 Census of Population, BLS selected the urban areas from which data on prices were collected and chose the housing units within each area that were eligible for use in the shelter component of the CPI. The Census of Population also provided data on the number of consumers represented by each area selected as a CPI price collection area.

The CPI may not be applicable to all population groups. For example, the CPI-U is designed to measure the experience with price change of the U.S. urban population and thus may not accurately reflect the experience of people living in rural areas. Also, the CPI does not produce official estimates for the rate of inflation experienced by subgroups of the population, such as the elderly or the poor.

Information on the CPI is available from BLS electronically, through subscriptions to publications, and via telephone and fax, through automated recordings. Information specialists are also available in the national and regional offices to provide assistance. BLS on the Internet. Through the Internet, BLS provides free, easy, and continuous access to almost all published CPI data and press releases. The most recent month's CPI is made available immediately at the time of its release.

Include the facts that led the whistleblower to believe an improper governmentalactivity had occurred. Don't speculate or draw conclusions. Include as much specific information as possible to allow for proper assessment of the nature, extent, and urgency of preliminary investigative procedures. Your documentation likely will not be considered a public record until the matter has been resolved, either by investigation or determination that no investigation is warranted.

Yes. A good estimate is acceptable if book figures are not available for specific items. We do not expect businesses to incur additional expenses to develop information not available from their records. The definition of the textile finishing industry includes establishments of converters that buy textiles in the grey, have them finished on contract, and sell at wholesale

The purpose of this questionnaire is to obtain an accurate and up-to-date list of your establishments, i.e., separate business locations that were in operation or new plant(s) under construction during part or all of the survey year. This list should include establishments of your company and each of its subsidiaries except those reported on the MA-1000 form.

noted in the answers to Questions 14 and 16, BLS strongly urges the use of the national or regional CPIs for use in escalator clauses. These indexes are more stable and subject to less sampling and other measurement error than are area indexes and, therefore, are more statistically reliable.

Section 6104 of the Internal Revenue Code addresses the disclosure requirements for Forms 990 and other IRS forms. General Instruction M of the IRS Instructions for the Form 990 provides additional information. In the mid-1990s, legislative changes to the federal laws governing exempt organizations were made to encourage public disclosure of Forms 990 to promote accountability. For a summary of disclosure regulations click here.

The CPI market basket is developed from detailed expenditure information provided by families and individuals on what they actually bought. For the current CPI, this information was collected from the Consumer Expenditure Survey over the two years 2001 and 2002. In each of those years, about 10,000 families from around the country provided information on their spending habits in a series of quarterly interviews.

Each month, BLS data collectors called economic assistants visit or call thousands of retail stores, service establishments, rental units, and doctors' offices, all over the United States to obtain information on the prices of the thousands of items used to track and measure price changes in the CPI. These economic assistants record the prices of about 80,000 items each month representing a scientifically selected sample of the prices paid by consumers for the goods and services purchased.

Certain taxes are included in the CPI, namely, taxes that are directly associated with the purchase of specific goods and services (such as sales and excise taxes). Government user fees are also included in the CPI. For example, toll charges and parking fees are included in the transportation category and an entry fee to a national park would be included as part of the admissions index.

Inflation has been defined as a process of continuously rising prices or equivalently, of a continuously falling value of money. Various indexes have been devised to measure different aspects of inflation.

Yes. The CPI will need revisions, as long as there are significant changes in consumer buying habits or shifts in population distribution or demographics. By developing annual Consumer Expenditure Surveys and Point-of-Purchase Surveys, the Bureau has the flexibility to monitor changing buying habits in a timely and cost-efficient manner.

The Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index is a ranking of countries in terms of the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians. The Global Corruption Report (GCR) presents an in depth-assessment of the state of corruption around the world.