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

PPI in March 2007

The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods increased 1.0 percent in March, seasonally adjusted. This advance followed a 1.3-percent rise in February and a 0.6-percent decrease in January.

[Chart data—TXT]

The index for finished goods excluding foods and energy was unchanged in March after moving up 0.4 percent in February. 

The consumer foods index rose less in March than it had a month earlier—1.4 and 1.9 percent, respectively. By contrast, slightly counteracting the deceleration in finished goods prices, the index for energy goods increased 3.6 percent in March compared with a rise of 3.5 percent in February.

From March 2006 to March 2007, prices for finished goods rose 3.2 percent, as shown in the chart.

These data are from the BLS Producer Price Index program. To learn more, see "Producer Price Indexes — March 2007" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 07-0527. 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.