May 16, 2003 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Producer prices down sharply in April

The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods declined 1.9 percent in April, seasonally adjusted. This record decrease followed three consecutive increases: 1.7 percent in January, 1.0 percent in February, and 1.5 percent in March.

[Chart data—TXT]

The majority of the April decline in the Producer Price Index for Finished Goods was due to prices for finished energy goods, which declined 8.6 percent after posting a 5.7-percent increase in March. (Excluding prices for energy goods, the finished goods index declined 0.5 percent in April.) 

The April index for finished goods other than foods and energy dropped 0.9 percent, compared with an increase of 0.7 percent in March. The April decline in this index was the largest since a 1.2-percent decrease in August 1993 and can be traced to lower prices for passenger cars, light trucks, and cigarettes. (Excluding prices for passenger cars, light trucks, and cigarettes, prices for finished goods other than foods and energy rose 0.2 percent in April.) The finished consumer foods index moved up 0.9 percent, after rising 0.1 percent in March.

From April 2002 to April 2003, prices for finished goods rose 2.4 percent. 

These data are from the BLS Producer Price Index program. Find out more in "Producer Price Indexes, April 2003" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 03–241. 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.