Producer Price Index for finished goods up 6.8 percent over the year

On an unadjusted basis, prices for finished goods moved up 6.8 percent for the 12 months ended April 2011, the largest year-over-year gain since an 8.8-percent increase in September 2008.

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For the 12 months ended April 2011, prices for finished consumer foods increased 5.1 percent; for finished energy goods, 21.1 percent; and for finished goods less foods and energy, 2.1 percent.

Over the month, the Producer Price Index for finished goods rose 0.8 percent in April, seasonally adjusted. This advance followed increases of 0.7 percent in March and 1.6 percent in February.

About three quarters of the April advance in the finished goods index can be traced to a 2.5-percent jump in prices for finished energy goods. Prices for finished energy goods increased 2.5 percent in April, the seventh consecutive monthly advance.

These data are from the BLS Producer Price Index program. For more information, see "Producer Price Indexes — April 2011" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-11-0680. All producer price indexes are routinely subject to revision once, 4 months after original publication, to reflect the availability of late reports and corrections by respondents.