Core Inflation

When your abdominal muscles grow really, really large. Or when the center of an apple expands rapidly to make freakishly giant apples…

But in finance, core inflation is an economic metric that tracks total price growth minus food and energy commodities. It was originally proposed in 1975 by Northwestern economics professor Robert Gordon as a way to track inflation growth without exposure to volatile food and energy prices, which were whipping up and down in the 1970s due to the Saudi Oil Embargo.

The Federal Reserve uses core inflation as a measurement to determine when to raise interest rates.