October 04, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

New price indexes for insurance industries

In their first year of publication, the Producer Price Index for life insurance carriers fell, while the index for property and casualty insurance rose.

[Chart data—TXT]

The price index for the life insurance carriers industry declined 0.3 percent from December 1998 to December 1999. Declines in prices for life insurance policies and fixed-rate deferred annuities contributed to the drop. Increased competition from consolidation in the industry also contributed to the decrease in the life insurance carriers index.

Prices in the property and casualty insurance industry increased 1.1 percent between December 1998 and December 1999. A 2.8-percent rise in the price of homeowners insurance helped stimulate the increase in the property and casualty insurance index.

These data are a product of the BLS Producer Price Index program. Learn more in "Rising producer prices in 1999 dominated by energy goods," by Eleni Xenofondos and William F. Snyders, Monthly Labor Review, August 2000.