November 15, 2002 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Producer prices up slightly in September

The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods rose 0.1 percent in September, seasonally adjusted. This index showed no change in August, after falling 0.2 percent in July.

[Chart data—TXT]

Among finished goods, the index for finished energy goods climbed 0.9 percent in September, following a 1.0-percent jump in August. Prices for finished goods other than foods and energy turned up 0.1 percent, after a decline of 0.1 percent. On the other hand, the index for finished consumer foods fell 0.6 percent in September, following a 0.4-percent decrease in the previous month.

During the third quarter of 2002, the finished goods index declined at a 0.6-percent seasonally adjusted annual rate, after falling at a 1.4-percent rate during the second quarter of 2002. Excluding prices for foods and energy, the finished goods index fell at a 1.6-percent seasonally adjusted annual rate for the three months ended September 2002, following a 1.1-percent rate of advance in the second quarter of 2002.

These data are a product of the BLS Producer Price Index program.  Find out more in "Producer Price Indexes, September 2002" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 02-581.  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.