Per capita GDP is far better than what the government is using, which is total GDP that is technically slowly rising but not faster than our population growth rate.
CPI doesn’t give near a good picture as per capita GDP does. CPI increases can be at or below target levels but if per capita GDP growth is negative it’s still very bad. Having good per capita GDP data and bad CPI data and way, way less common, I’m even actually sure it’s ever happened in modern times.