Is there a measure of inflation specifically for the Erie economy?
No. For most purposes, the best measure to use is the national Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) (link to it in our database) calculated monthly by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (http://www.bls.gov/cpi/) The BLS does compute CPIs for a few large metro areas around the county, including Pittsburgh, Cleveland-Akron and Philadelphia, and for the Northeast region of the country in different size classes. (Technically, Erie would fall into the Northeast Urban category, size class B/C.) But those indexes are based on less data than the national CPI-U and therefore are probably not as accurate, so it’s typically better to use the national index for measuring inflation. There is probably not a big difference in the rate of inflation from place to place within the country, also, so using the national rate makes sense.
