inflation from 2008 to the present

Sharp10r

Every calculator I find online seems to have dates going to 08 or 09, but I want to know about inflation between 08 and now. How do I calculate that?

EggyToast

Inflation is typically calculated from sources like the CPI, so to calculate it you'd look up the CPI on a page like this:

http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/Consumer_Price_Index/HistoricalCPI.aspx

Incidentally, this page (on the same site) covers how to calculate it manually:

http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/inflation_articles/calculateinflation.asp

Hope that helps.

Sharp10r

Thanks! That's exactly what I need I think, now I just need to do the reading to understand and apply it. (It's reading a bit foggy at the moment)

EggyToast

Well, from January 2008 to January 2011, it's 220.223-211.08, divided by 220.223. So 4.15%

Edit: that's going to be slightly different from what an actual inflation calculator would say, by the way (the calculator on that very site gives 4.33%) because it's more accurate to include every data point, which is obviously more complex calculations. But it also makes sense that if inflation is really high one month and low the next, the following month needs to account for those rises and dips.