Question: The price of gasoline. Use your results from Exercise to answer these questions.
(a) By how many points did the gasoline price index number change between 1987 and 2007? What percentage change was this?
(b) By how many points did the gasoline price index number change between 1997 and 2007? What percentage change was this?
You see that the point change and the percentage change in an index number are the same if we start in the base period, but not otherwise.
Exercise: The price of gasoline. The yearly average price of unleaded regular gasoline has fluctuated as follows:
1987: $0.95 per gallon
1997: $1.23 per gallon
2007: $2.80 per gallon
Give the gasoline price index numbers (1997 = 100) for 1987, 1997, and 2007.