For Current And Historical Material In This — 1999-02-19

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 0.2 percent in January, before seasonal adjustment, to a level of 164.3 (1982- 84=100), the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. For the 12-month period ended in January, the CPI-U has increased 1.7 percent. The Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) also rose 0.2 percent in January, prior to seasonal adjustment. The January level of 161.0 was 1.6 percent higher than the index in January 1998. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the CPI-U rose 0.1 percent in January, the same as in December. The food index advanced 0.5 percent in January after increasing 0.1 percent in December. The index for food at home, which was unchanged in December, rose 0.5 percent in January, largely as a result of increases in the indexes for fruits and vegetables and for dairy products.