October 21, 2011 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Producer prices in September 2011

The Producer Price Index for finished goods rose 0.8 percent in September, seasonally adjusted. The increase in the index was broad based. Finished goods prices were unchanged in August and increased 0.2 percent in July.

1-month percent change in the Producer Price Index for finished goods, seasonally adjusted, August 2011-September 2011
[Chart data]

The index for finished energy goods advanced 2.3 percent in September after decreasing in each of the previous three months. Nearly seventy percent of this rise can be attributed to the gasoline index, which increased 4.2 percent.

The index for finished goods less food and energy moved up 0.2 percent in September, the tenth straight increase. One-third of the advance can be traced to prices for light motor trucks, which rose 0.6 percent.

Prices for finished consumer foods climbed 0.6 percent in September, the fourth consecutive monthly increase. Prices for fresh and dry vegetables increased 10.0 percent, accounting for over eighty percent of the advance.

These data are from the BLS Producer Price Index program. To learn more, see "Producer Price Indexes — September 2011" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-11-1497. 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.

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