EmailEconomic
Last Update: 12-Apr-13 08:58 ET
PPI
Highlights
- Producer prices fell 0.6% in March and nearly gave back the entire 0.7% gain in February. The Briefing.com consensus expected producer prices to fall 0.1%.
- Excluding food and energy, core prices rose 0.2% for the third consecutive month. The consensus expected core prices to increase 0.1%.
Key Factors
- A sharp drop in energy prices (-3.4%) was instrumental in driving producer prices down. That was the fifth time out of the last six months that energy prices fell. Gasoline prices fell 6.8%, which accounted for more than 80% of the decline in energy costs.
- Food prices rose 0.8% in March. That was the largest increase since November 2012. A 21.5% increase in prices of fresh and dry vegetables caused nearly 90% of the March increase.
- Trends in core prices have been relatively tame and the only unusual gain was a 0.7% increase in the price of civilian aircraft.
- Pricing pressures down the manufacturing pipeline remain soft. Core intermediate prices increased only 0.2%, which was the slowest increase since falling 0.1% in November. Core crude prices rose 0.9% and ended two months of declines.
Big Picture
- Outside of food and energy, inflationary pressures remain muted.
| Category | MAR | FEB | JAN | DEC | NOV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finished Goods | -0.6% | 0.7% | 0.2% | -0.3% | -0.4% |
| Core | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.2% |
| Capital Equipment | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.0% | 0.2% |
| Consumer Foods | 0.8% | -0.5% | 0.7% | -0.8% | 1.3% |
| Energy | -3.4% | 3.0% | -0.4% | -0.6% | -3.3% |
| Intermediate Materials | -0.9% | 1.3% | 0.0% | 0.1% | -0.9% |
| Core | 0.2% | 0.7% | 0.3% | 0.3% | -0.1% |
| Crude Materials | -2.5% | -0.3% | 0.8% | 1.4% | 0.4% |
| Core | 0.9% | -1.7% | -0.3% | 1.4% | 1.3% |
