Super Core CPI strips two components from Core CPI: shelter, which moves slowly and lags market rents by 12-18 months, and goods, which are heavily influenced by global supply chains. What remains is the services-sector inflation that responds to domestic wage growth and demand. Powell flagged this measure in his November 2022 Brookings speech as the "most important category for understanding the future evolution of core inflation."
Computed by the BLS as the year-over-year percent change in the seasonally-adjusted CPI for All Urban Consumers: Services Less Rent of Shelter (series CUSR0000SASL5). Released monthly as part of the standard CPI release on the second Tuesday/Wednesday after the reference month.
Super Core CPI — services excluding shelter — strips out volatile shelter costs and goods prices to isolate services inflation driven by domestic wages. Then-Fed Chair Jerome Powell singled it out as the most important gauge for reading where core inflation is heading, and it has been closely watched ever since.
