February 17, 2012 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Producer prices in January 2012
The Producer Price Index for finished goods advanced 0.1 percent in January, seasonally adjusted. Prices for finished goods declined 0.1 percent in December 2011 and moved up 0.2 percent in November 2011.
[Chart data]
The index for finished goods less foods and energy moved up 0.4 percent in January, the largest increase since a 0.5-percent rise in July 2011. About 40 percent of the advance in the index for finished goods less foods and energy can be attributed to prices for pharmaceutical preparations, which climbed 2.0 percent.
The index for finished energy goods fell 0.5 percent in January, the fourth straight monthly decrease in this index. Leading the January decline, prices for residential electric power moved down 1.7 percent.
Prices for finished consumer foods moved down 0.3 percent in January after falling 0.9 percent in December 2011. Over 80 percent of the January decline can be attributed to the index for fresh and dry vegetables, which fell 8.8 percent.
These data are from the BLS Producer Price Index program. To learn more, see "Producer Price Indexes — January 2012" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-12-0266. All producer prices are routinely subject to revision once, 4 months after original publication, to reflect the availability of late reports and corrections by respondents.
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