February 22, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

PPI in January 2005

The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods advanced 0.3 percent in January 2005, seasonally adjusted. This increase followed a 0.3-percent decline in December and a 0.7-percent rise in November.

[Chart data—TXT]

Among finished goods in January, prices for finished goods other than foods and energy climbed 0.8 percent, compared with a 0.2-percent gain in December. The index for finished energy goods decreased at a slower rate in January than it did in December. By contrast, prices for finished consumer foods turned down in January, after edging up in December.

From January 2004 to January 2005, finished goods prices increased 4.2 percent, as shown in the chart. During the same period, the finished energy goods index jumped 9.8 percent, prices for finished goods other than foods and energy rose 2.7 percent, and the index for finished consumer foods went up 4.1 percent.

These data are from the BLS Producer Price Index program. For more information, see "Producer Price Indexes -- January 2005" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 05-266. 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.