price index

noun

: an index number expressing the level of a group of commodity prices relative to the level of the prices of the same commodities during an arbitrarily chosen base period and used to indicate changes in the level of prices from one period to another

Examples of price index in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Weekly jobless claims and the May producer price index are on the economic calendar. —Jeff Marks,morgan Chittum, CNBC, 10 June 2026

However, this is a price index problem, not a GDP problem. —James Broughel, Forbes.com, 6 June 2026

The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index rose 0.4% on a monthly basis, slowing from a 0.7% increase in March. —Alicia Wallace, CNN Money, 28 May 2026

Economists also watch it because some of its components, notably measures of healthcare and financial services, flow into the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge — the Commerce Department’s personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, price index. —Paul Wiseman, Los Angeles Times, 13 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1886, in the meaning defined above