Except it's not. It's how we calculate inflation, which in turns drives how we measure GDP growth. It's also how we measure productivity and purchasing power variation over time. This measure has a very big impact, including on our assessment of policies and the evolution of the economies of nations.
Off course there can be no absolute value for such a thing, but the problem is that economists have been obsessed with “real” prices and disregarding “nominal” values (you'd notice the irony of naming the arbitrarily constructed thing as “real”), and so almost every economic analysis includes CPI and now everything depends on it so its measurement become included everywhere indirectly. And it is in fact a big problem.
Except it's not. It's how we calculate inflation, which in turns drives how we measure GDP growth. It's also how we measure productivity and purchasing power variation over time. This measure has a very big impact, including on our assessment of policies and the evolution of the economies of nations.
Off course there can be no absolute value for such a thing, but the problem is that economists have been obsessed with “real” prices and disregarding “nominal” values (you'd notice the irony of naming the arbitrarily constructed thing as “real”), and so almost every economic analysis includes CPI and now everything depends on it so its measurement become included everywhere indirectly. And it is in fact a big problem.