Recent Updates
- US: Consumer Prices (Mar)
- Bangladesh: CPI (Mar)
- US: NFIB SMall Business Optimism (Mar)
- Egypt: Steel Sales and Production (Mar), BOP (Q4-Prelim)
- Slovenia: BOP, External Debt Liabilities (Feb)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
U.S. Energy Prices Ease Broadly
The price of regular gasoline eased to $2.85 per gallon (+53.8% y/y) in the week ended April 12...
U.S. Government Budget Deficit Widens During March
The U.S. Treasury Department reported a federal budget deficit of $659.6 billion during March...
FIBER: Industrial Commodity Prices Improve Modestly
The FIBER Industrial Materials Price Index increased 0.9% during the four weeks ended April 9...
EMU Retail Sales Jump, Regaining Some of the January Drop
February finds EU retail sales and motor vehicle registration rebounding...
U.S. PPI Posts Broad-Based Strength in March
The Producer Price Index for final demand jumped 1.0% (4.2% y/y) during March...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
Monetary Policy Blunder: Not Managing Economic & Financial Outcomes Equally
Monetary Policy at a Crossroad: Policymakers Need to Break Promise of Easy Money to Avoid Boom-Bust
State Coincident Indexes in January
Data Surprises, Markets and COVID
by Tom Moeller February 18, 2015
The overall Final Demand Producer Price Index fell 0.8% during January (0.0%
y/y) following a 0.2% December decline, revised from -0.3%. A 0.5% drop was expected in
the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Prices excluding food & energy slipped
0.1% (+1.6% y/y) following a 0.3% rise. A 0.1% uptick was expected.
Final demand goods prices (34% of the total index) declined 2.1% (-3.7% y/y), led lower by a 10.3% decline (-22.2% y/y) in energy prices. Gasoline prices were off 24.0% (-44.4% y/y) while home heating oil prices declined 19.6% (-46.0% y/y). Electric power costs gained 1.2% (4.1% y/y) but natural gas prices fell 4.2% (-2.7% y/y). Finished food prices declined 1.1% (+2.5% y/y) following a 0.1% slip. Beef & veal prices increased 1.0% (23.6% y/y) but dairy product prices declined 5.7% (-7.2% y/y).
Final demand prices for goods excluding food & energy backpedaled 0.2% (+0.6% y/y) after a 0.1% gain. Passenger car prices rose 0.3% (1.0% y/y) following two months of 0.1% uptick while furniture prices increased 0.3% (+1.5% y/y). Light motor truck prices were off 0.7% (-0.1% y/y), down for the third month in the last four. Private capital equipment prices improved 0.1% (0.9% y/y) after a 0.2% rise.
Services prices (64% of the total index) were off 0.2% (+2.0% y/y) after a 0.3% increase. Final demand trade services prices posted another strong increase of 0.5% (4.4% y/y). Prices for transportation of passengers declined 1.0% (+0.3% y/y). Prices for transportation and warehousing of goods for final demand fell 0.6% (+0.8% y/y).
Recovering by 0.4% (1.9% y/y) were construction prices for final demand (2% of the total index) following two months of being unchanged.
Intermediate demand prices of processed goods were off 2.8% (-5.5% y/y), the largest of six straight monthly declines.
Measured using the old formula, which is being phased out as the headline series, producer prices fell 2.1% (-3.3% y/y), the largest of six consecutive monthly declines. Consumer food costs moved 0.8% lower (+3.9% y/y), down for the third straight month while energy prices declined 9.6% (-20.7% y/y). Prices excluding food & energy improved 0.2% (1.5% y/y). Intermediate goods prices declined 2.8% (-5.7 y/y), led lower by an 8.3% decline (-21.2% y/y) in energy prices while food costs fell 2.5% (-0.6% y/y). Intermediate goods prices excluding food & energy were off 1.3% (-1.4% y/y).
The PPI data are contained in Haver's USECON database with further detail in PPI and PPIR. The expectations figure is available in the AS1REPNA database.
Producer Price Index (%) | Jan | Dec | Nov | Jan Y/Y | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Final Demand | -0.8 | -0.2 | -0.2 | 0.0 | 1.6 | 1.3 | 1.9 |
Excluding Food & Energy | -0.1 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.5 | 1.9 |
Goods | -2.1 | -1.1 | -0.7 | -3.7 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 1.7 |
Foods | -1.1 | -0.1 | 0.0 | 2.5 | 3.2 | 1.7 | 3.0 |
Energy | -10.3 | -6.2 | -3.8 | -22.2 | -1.0 | -0.8 | 0.2 |
Goods Excluding Food & Energy | -0.2 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 1.8 |
Services | -0.2 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 2.0 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 1.9 |
Construction | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.9 | 3.0 | 1.8 | 2.9 |
Intermediate Demand - Processed Goods | -2.8 | -1.6 | -1.0 | -5.5 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 0.5 |