September 13, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

PPI in August 2004

The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods declined 0.1 percent in August 2004, seasonally adjusted. This decrease followed a 0.1-percent advance in July and a 0.3-percent decline in June.

[Chart data—TXT]

At the earlier stages of processing, prices received by manufacturers of intermediate goods jumped 1.0 percent in August, after a 0.8-percent gain in the preceding month, while the crude goods index fell 0.7 percent, compared with a 0.2-percent decrease in July.

From August 2003 to August 2004, the finished goods index rose 3.4 percent, as shown in the chart. Over the same period, prices for finished energy goods climbed 9.9 percent, the index for finished consumer foods increased 4.0 percent, and prices for finished goods other than foods and energy advanced 1.5 percent.

These data are from the BLS Producer Price Index program. For more information, see "Producer Price Indexes -- August 2004" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 04-1763. 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.