Briefing

Predicting PCE Using the Richmond Fed Price Measure


Abstract: The Richmond Fed survey measure of price changes comes out a month earlier than the PCE measure of inflation. Because the Richmond Fed price measure is known earlier, we can use the contemporaneous measure to provide an estimate of inflation. An empirical model with contemporaneous and past inflation changes — as measured by the Richmond Fed's price survey — notably reduces the out-of-sample forecast error obtained from a benchmark random walk model of inflation. Using the Richmond Fed price survey data prior to the release of September PCE, we forecast September PCE inflation to move from 2.7 percent in August to 2.9 percent year over year at an annualized rate.

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File(s): File format is text/html https://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/economic_brief/2025/eb_25-44
Description: Briefing

Authors

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

Part of Series: Richmond Fed Economic Brief

Publication Date: 2025-12-12

Volume: 25

Issue: 44