February 18, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Producer prices in January

The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods showed no change in January, seasonally adjusted. This followed a 0.1-percent increase in December and a 0.2-percent advance in November.

[Chart data—TXT]

The index for finished goods other than foods and energy fell 0.2 percent in January, after edging up 0.1 percent the previous month. At the earlier stages of process, prices received by producers of intermediate goods rose 0.4 percent, following a 0.2-percent increase in the prior month, and the crude goods index advanced 2.7 percent, after a 3.9-percent decline a month earlier.

From January 1999 to January 2000, the finished goods price index increased 2.5 percent (unadjusted). Over the same period, prices for finished energy goods advanced 17.5 percent, finished consumer foods declined 0.4 percent, and finished goods other than foods and energy rose 0.8 percent. Prices received by domestic producers of intermediate goods moved up 4.1 percent for the 12 months ended in January 2000. The index for crude goods registered an 18.0-percent gain in the same period.

These data are a product of the BLS Producer Price Index program. Find out more in Producer Price Indexes, January 2000, news release USDL 00-46. 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.