August 24, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Largest drop ever in prices of
crude materials in 1998
The Producer Price Index for
crude materials fell by 16.7 percent in 1998. This was the biggest annual decline ever in
the series, which began in 1947.
[Chart data—TXT]
Prices for crude materials excluding food and energy
decreased last year by almost as much as the overall index: down 16.0 percent. In recent
years, it has been unusual for these two indexes to move in such a similar fashion. As
shown in the chart, in each year from 1994 to 1997, there was at least a
9-percentage-point difference between the movements of these indexes.
Of all crude materials excluding food and energy, scrap metals experienced some of the
largest reductions in prices in 1998. For example, the index for iron and steel scrap
plunged by 39.9 percent. Food and energy prices in the PPI for crude materials also
retreated in 1998. The foodstuffs and feedstuffs index declined by 11.0 percent and the
energy index dropped by 23.8 percent.
PPI data come from the BLS Producer Price Index
program. More information is available in the BLS publication "PPI Detailed Report:
Data for 1998." Annual percent changes are December-to-December changes. The relative
importance of materials besides food and energy in the crude materials PPI was 29.2
percent as of December 1998. Note that this edition of The Editor’s Desk
updates some of the figures in an article that appeared here earlier this year: "Producer prices edged down 0.1
percent in 1998" (01/14/1999). The Producer Price Index has been revised since the
earlier article originally appeared.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
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