The Producer Price Index, which is also due that Friday, won't grab too much attention since it gauges inflation, and that's under control.
The CPI is the government's primary index measures the average price of a basket of goods and services the typical household is likely to buy monthly, such as transportation, energy, food and medical care, and is the primary means of gauging inflation movements.
In the last 12 months, the index, which is the primary gauge of inflation, has risen 5percentt.
Without a reliable gauge of inflation, lending is almost impossible, even for the medium term.
A gauge of inflation in the report showed a 1.5 percent growth in prices compared with 2008.
A closely watched gauge of inflation that excludes food and energy ticked up last month, to a 2.2percentt annual rate.
The index, the main gauge of inflation and bedrock statistic of the federal government, is a surprisingly frail number.
The rise in productivity in the fourth quarter helped to moderate unit labor costs, a gauge of inflation.
The report's deflator index, closely watched as a gauge of inflation, also came in as expected.
Officials said the producer price index, a gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, showed no growth from a year earlier.
