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Price data revised higher
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September 28, 2000: 10:30 a.m. ET
Closely watched Consumer Price Index was affected by software glitch
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The government revised its most closely watched measure of inflation up slightly Thursday after discovering an error in the way it was calculating the Consumer Price Index.
The Labor Department announced Wednesday that software used to calculate the rent components of the index would cause it to revise the CPI for January through August of this year.
The department revised the CPI up by 0.1 percentage point each month except for May and July, when the readings remained unrevised. The change means that for the first eight months of the year, the CPI rose 3.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis instead of the 3.4 percent increase originally reported.
The CPI is the nation's most closely watched inflation gauge.
Besides being weighed by the Federal Reserve when setting interest rates, the CPI is used by the federal government to make cost-of-living adjustments in Social Security payments and other benefits, as well as to calculate raises in some labor contracts in the private sector.
The adjustment would add about 82 cents a month to the average retiree's benefits check, the Social Security Administration said.
The U.S. Treasury Department said the change would not affect inflation-indexed securities, which rise and fall based on the value of the CPI. 
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