There are significant flaws in the way Consumer Price Index (CPI; the inflation measure used by BLS) is calculated and it's been tweaked over time so historic values don't necessarily compare well to each other. I think it's safe to assume that the government's number is lower than the actual inflation. I could never make sense of how certain expenses like healthcare are showing modest 2-3% increases in the CPI but in reality go up by 5-10%.