With the start of 2026, DecisionNext has officially updated the base year used in its monthly Finished Goods Index Report, transitioning from 2024 to 2025. This rollover ensures the index continues to provide timely, relevant insights by anchoring its calculations to the most recent complete year of pricing data.
The Finished Goods Index is a Laspeyres Price Index—a method that compares the cost of a fixed basket of goods at current prices to the cost of that same basket in a designated base year. In 2025, that base year was 2024 (Jan 1 – Dec 31). Now, for all 2026 forecasts and comparisons, the base year has been updated to reflect 2025 average prices.
To execute the rollover, DecisionNext calculated the mean price for each finished good item across approximately 48 observation periods from 2025. This approach ensures that the updated index denominator is both methodologically sound and statistically representative of annual pricing conditions.
Alongside this rollover, an additional refinement was made to the Chicken Sandwich series. During internal reviews of Finished Goods Index construction, analysts found that the bun input—based on wheat commodity data—was understating the cost of consumer-grade buns. While other components of the index had already received similar retail-aligned transformations, the Chicken Sandwich series had not. This correction has now been applied, bringing the model in line with real-world consumer pricing and matching the methodology with the Cheeseburger and Hot Dog indices.
Together, these updates improve the integrity and accuracy of the DecisionNext Finished Goods Index report and support more reliable forecasting for food manufacturers, retailers, and supply chain professionals.
Want to learn more about how the DecisionNext Finished Goods Index is constructed? Read the full methodology for the monthly report including the breakdown for all three finished goods currently tracked here on the DecisionNext website.
