Why do we exclude the price of things like Food, Housing and Energy costs when looking at the total number for inflation?

Question

I’ve been looking for a reasonable explanation for this for a while and literally cannot find one. SO help me understand, please. ❤️🤷‍♀️

In: 42

Answer 1

Here is a longish article that explains your question and why certain items are sometimes removed. Basically there are some items that are more volatile and can mask other issues. In many cases, supplementary data is also available that tracks the excluded items and this gives economists a better idea of what are the underlying trends and account for the more price volatile items later.

[https://www.forbes.com/sites/qai/2023/01/23/supercore-inflation-excludes-food-energy-and-housing/?sh=31aaee353328](https://www.forbes.com/sites/qai/2023/01/23/supercore-inflation-excludes-food-energy-and-housing/?sh=31aaee353328)