Producer prices rise again in August

The seasonally adjusted Producer Price Index for Finished Goods advanced 0.4 percent in August. This increase followed a 0.1-percent gain in July and a 0.5-percent rise in June.

[Chart data—TXT]

Among finished goods, prices for finished consumer foods climbed 0.7 percent in August, following a 0.2-percent decline in the previous month. The finished energy goods index moved up 1.2 percent, after rising 0.3 percent in July. By contrast, the index for finished goods other than foods and energy edged up 0.1 percent, after increasing 0.2 percent in the previous month.

From August 2002 to August 2003, prices for finished goods moved up 3.4 percent. (See chart.) Over the same period, the finished energy goods index rose 14.2 percent, prices for finished consumer foods advanced 5.0 percent, and the index for finished goods other than foods and energy went up 0.4 percent. Earlier in the pipeline, prices for intermediate goods climbed 4.4 percent and the crude goods index jumped 20.9 percent.

These data are from the BLS Producer Price Index program. Find out more in "Producer Price Indexes -- August 2003" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 03–471. The term Producer Price Index (PPI) refers to a family of indexes that measure the average change over time in the selling prices received by domestic producers of goods and services. 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.