FRED PCEPILFE — Daily CSV Download (Core PCE Inflation)

Core PCE — Personal Consumption Expenditures excluding food and energy — is the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge and the basis for its 2% target. Unlike CPI, PCE uses dynamic consumption weights and a broader spending basket. Core PCE has been the operative metric in every FOMC statement since 2012, making it the most consequential inflation number in the world. Why this metric carries that weight is detailed in the complete guide to inflation.

Dataset: US Core PCE Inflation (1959–2026) · Updated 2026-03-01

Source: FRED series PCEPILFE · Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) via FRED

Macro Takeaway

Dataset Overview

Dataset Variables

The CSV and Excel files contain the following columns.

Column names match the CSV headers exactly.

Download the Complete Dataset

The full dataset is available in CSV and Excel formats.

FRED Direct CSV Access

The underlying data is available from FRED under series code PCEPILFE:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.csv?id=PCEPILFE

Direct CSV Access — Eco3min Structured Dataset

https://eco3min.fr/dataset/us-core-pce.csv

This URL returns the complete dataset in CSV format. It can be used directly in pandas, R, curl, or any data tool.

Using the Dataset in Python

import pandas as pd

url = "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/us-core-pce.csv"
df = pd.read_csv(url, parse_dates=["date"])

print(df.head())
print(df["core_pce_index"].describe())

Using the Dataset in R

library(readr)

url <- "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/us-core-pce.csv"
df <- read_csv(url)

head(df)
summary(df$core_pce_index)

Both examples load the dataset directly from the URL — no download or API key required.

Methodology

FRED series PCEPILFE. Core PCE strips out food and energy from the broader PCE deflator. Unlike CPI, it uses chain-weighted consumption baskets that adjust for substitution effects, making it a smoother and typically lower inflation measure.

This dataset is updated monthly (end of month, ~1 month lag) via automated pull from the FRED API.

Historical Regimes

Historical regime analysis for this dataset will be added in a future update. The key stats block above provides immediate context for the current reading relative to the full historical distribution.

Related Macroeconomic Datasets

Core PCE is the metric the Fed uses to decide rate policy. When it exceeds 2%, the Fed tightens; when it falls below, the Fed considers easing. The gap between Core PCE and Core CPI (~30–50 bps typically) reflects methodological differences that matter for policy interpretation.

Related Research

Real interest rates computed against Core PCE yield a different — and arguably more policy-relevant — picture than CPI-deflated rates. The choice of deflator changes the narrative.

Macroeconomic Dataset Hub

This dataset is part of the Eco3min macro-financial data repository.

Explore the Eco3min Dataset Hub

Sources

• Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) via FRED

Dataset Reference

Eco3min Research. (2026). US Core PCE Inflation (1959–2026).<br> https://eco3min.fr/en/us-core-pce-inflation-dataset/