From 2006 to 2007 consumer prices in the Anchorage metropolitan area rose 2.2 percent according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. The U.S. city average for the same period rose 2.8 percent. Regional Commissioner Richard J. Holden said higher prices for energy, food, and shelter had the greatest impact on the overall increase. The Anchorage energy special aggregate index, which accounts for nearly 8 percent of the basket of goods, rose 9.9 percent in 2007. For the same period, the Anchorage all items less food and energy index rose 1.2 percent. Local area CPI data are not seasonally adjusted.

Prices associated with housing rose 2.7 percent in 2007. Housing consists of three components: shelter, fuels and utilities, and household furnishings and operations. In 2007, shelter rose 1.4 percent, fuels and utilities rose 12.7, and household furnishings operations rose 1.2 percent.

Food and beverages prices rose 4.6 percent in 2007. Grocery prices, represented by the food at home index, rose 5.4 percent last year, up from 0.9 percent during 2006. Food away from home rose 3.6 percent and alcoholic beverage prices rose 1.1 percent on an annual basis since 2006.

The overall transportation index rose 1.2 percent from the 2006 annual average. Gasoline prices rose 6.5 percent in 2007, compared to 13.9 percent in 2006. Private transportation, which includes gasoline as well as new and used cars, advanced 1.0 percent over the past year.

Annual average prices for medical care advanced 3.0 percent in 2007. The education and communication index rose 0.7 percent, and the miscellaneous other goods and services index rose 4.0 percent from 2006 to 2007. Annual average prices for apparel decreased 2.8 percent from 2006 to 2007, while the recreation index edged down 0.1 percent over the same period.

The Anchorage Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) measured 181.237 (1982-84=100) for the 2007 annual average. This means a market basket of goods and services that cost $100.00 in 1982-84 would have cost $181.24 in 2007.

Effective with this release of the first half of 2007 semiannual Consumer Price Index (CPI), the Bureau of Labor Statistics displays CPI index values to three decimal places in all paper and electronic publications. This change applies to the All Items Consume Price Index and all component indexes for the CPI-U, CPI-W, and C-CPI-U, for the U.S. City Average and for all other published areas. In addition, percent changes are computed based upon the three decimal place indexes rather than the current one decimal place indexes. Percent changes continue to be rounded to 1 decimal place.

This change in procedure addresses a rounding issue that has resulted in published percent changes that are 0.1 percentage point higher or lower than the same percent changes based on unrounded index values (i.e., indexes to three or more decimal places). These differences can be particularly important when percent changes are very small. Publishing the index values to three decimal places, and using these values to compute percent changes, essentially eliminates the rounding differences. This change only affects the presentation of the index data. The index values continue to be calculated from underlying price data in the same manner as in the past, and no systematic upward or downward effect on the data has been introduced. The levels of future indexes will be affected only in that they will be published to three decimal places rather than one. Official CPI data previously published will not be revised.