July 12, 2002 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Producer prices edge upward in June

The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods edged up 0.1 percent in June. This slight increase followed decreases of 0.4 percent in May and 0.2 percent in April.

[Chart data—TXT]

At the earlier stages of processing, the intermediate goods index moved up 0.2 percent, following a 0.5-percent decline in May. Prices for crude goods turned down 3.6 percent in June, after increasing 1.7 percent in the previous month.

Among finished goods, prices for finished goods other than foods and energy rose 0.2 percent in June, after showing no change in the prior month. The finished consumer foods index increased 0.1 percent, following a 0.2-percent decline in May. The index for finished energy goods showed no change, compared with a 2.3-percent decline in the previous month.

During the first 6 months of 2002, the finished goods price index advanced at a 1.5-percent seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR), after falling at a 5.4-percent rate in the latter half of 2001.

From June 2001 to June 2002, prices for finished goods declined 2.1 percent.

These data are a product of the BLS Producer Price Index program. Find out more in the "Producer Price Indexes, June 2002" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 02-388. 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.