April 20, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

PPI up in March 2005

The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods advanced 0.7 percent in March, seasonally adjusted. This increase followed a 0.4-percent rise in February and a 0.3-percent gain in January.

[Chart data—TXT]

As they did in February, prices for finished goods other than foods and energy edged up 0.1 percent in March. 

The faster rate of increase for the finished goods index was primarily due to energy prices, which advanced 3.3 percent in March after rising 1.4 percent in February, though an upturn in capital equipment prices also contributed to the acceleration in finished goods prices. By contrast, price increases for consumer foods slowed to 0.3 percent in March from 0.8 percent in February. 

From March 2004 to March 2005, prices for finished goods increased 4.9 percent, as shown in the chart. Among finished goods, the index for energy goods advanced 15.3 percent, prices for consumer foods climbed 3.6 percent, and the index for goods other than foods and energy moved up 2.6 percent. 

These data are from the BLS Producer Price Index program. For more information, see "Producer Price Indexes -- March 2005" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 05-686. 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.