March 16, 2007 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Producer prices in February 2007

The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods advanced 1.3 percent in February, seasonally adjusted. This increase followed a 0.6-percent decline in January and a 0.9-percent rise in December.

[Chart data—TXT]

The finished energy goods index climbed 3.5 percent in February after falling 4.6 percent in the preceding month. Gasoline prices rose 5.3 percent following a 13.0-percent drop in January.

Prices for finished consumer foods advanced 1.9 percent in February following a 1.1-percent gain in the previous month.

Excluding prices for foods and energy, the finished goods index moved up 0.4 percent in February after a 0.2-percent advance in the previous month.

From February 2006 to February 2007, prices for finished goods rose 2.5 percent, as shown in the chart.

These data are from the BLS Producer Price Index program. To learn more, see "Producer Price Indexes — February 2007," (PDF) (TXT) news release USDL 07-0375. 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.