January 18, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

PPI down in December 2004

The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods fell 0.7 percent in December, seasonally adjusted. This decline followed a 0.5-percent increase in November and a 1.7-percent advance in October.

[Chart data—TXT]

Among finished goods, prices for energy goods dropped 4.0 percent in December, as opposed to the 1.8-percent increase registered in November. Excluding energy, prices for finished goods rose 0.1 percent in December. The index for finished consumer foods inched up 0.1 percent in December, compared with a 0.4-percent gain in the prior month. Prices for finished goods other than foods and energy rose 0.1 percent in December, following a 0.2-percent increase in November.

From December 2003 to December 2004, finished goods prices increased 4.1 percent, after climbing 4.0 percent during 2003. Prices for finished goods other than foods and energy gained 2.2 percent in 2004, following a 1.0-percent rise in 2003. Prices for finished energy goods advanced 13.4 percent in 2004, compared with an 11.4-percent increase in the previous year. By contrast, the finished consumer foods index moved up 2.8 percent in 2004, following a 7.7-percent advance in the prior year.

These data are from the BLS Producer Price Index program. For more information, see "Producer Price Indexes -- December 2004" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 05-57. 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.