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The Increasing Deflationary Impact of Consumer Digital Access Services, Accessible Data

Figure 1. Digital Access Services

Price index, 1987 = 100 - Percent share of total PCE

Year Price index, 1987 = 100 Digital access services share
1987 100.0 0.39
1988 103.6 0.43
1989 107.1 0.48
1990 111.9 0.53
1991 118.6 0.57
1992 120.7 0.63
1993 123.2 0.67
1994 119.2 0.67
1995 117.2 0.75
1996 115.6 0.84
1997 117.9 0.89
1998 119.3 0.98
1999 115.0 1.11
2000 109.9 1.27
2001 105.8 1.38
2002 106.7 1.48
2003 106.5 1.55
2004 104.7 1.61
2005 101.9 1.63
2006 99.6 1.69
2007 94.7 1.88
2008 92.9 2.01
2009 94.3 2.16
2010 92.0 2.24
2011 88.9 2.28
2012 88.5 2.35
2013 87.6 2.39
2014 84.9 2.45
2015 82.4 2.46
2016 80.7 2.50
2017 76.9 2.37
2018 74.5 2.32

Note. Authors' aggregation of BEA prices for consumer digital access services relative to

total PCE price index.

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Figure 2. PCE Inflation

Average percent change, annual rate

  Official index Alternative index Effect of Digital Access Services Revision
1988-1997 2.88 2.84 0.04
1998-2007 2.03 1.86 0.17
2008-2018 1.53 1.14 0.39

Source. Bureau of Economic Analysis; authors' calculations.

Note. Alternative index is aggregate of authors' index for digital access services and official prices for other items."

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Figure 3. Consumer Digital Access Service Price Indexes

Index, 1997 = 100. Log scale

  Official Alternative Price per user
1987 100 100 100
1988 107.61 103.05 103.55
1989 116.12 106.14 107.63
1990 126.67 108.12 109.92
1991 138.72 107.03 109.33
1992 145.03 103.34 106.52
1993 151.65 96.72 100.75
1994 149.81 93.88 102.06
1995 150.41 93.41 105.82
1996 151.48 91.36 107.86
1997 157.19 84.16 105.24
1998 160.37 75.59 104.48
1999 156.92 64.68 104.36
2000 153.70 56.37 108.08
2001 150.69 48.79 114.91
2002 154.00 42.94 119.36
2003 156.67 36.55 117.06
2004 157.99 33.02 120.37
2005 158.00 28.81 123.05
2006 158.71 25.82 122.66
2007 154.68 22.62 119.56
2008 156.34 19.57 113.33
2009 158.53 15.67 107.27
2010 157.37 12.39 105.26
2011 155.94 9.46 103.60
2012 158.09 8.04 99.37
2013 158.63 6.37 95.94
2014 156.02 5.27 98.08
2015 151.80 4.13 95.40
2016 150.14 3.44 97.63
2017 145.50 2.92 94.24
2018 144.03 2.50 94.75

Source. Authors' aggregation of BEA prices and authors' calculations of alternative index and price per user index.

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Last Update: July 15, 2020