U.S. wholesale-level inflation down 0.7% in December
Friday, January 14, 2005 1:52:49 PM
afxpress.com
WASHINGTON (AFX) -- U.S. prices for raw materials and other producers' inputs fell 0.7 percent in December, undercut by a sharp decline in energy prices, the Labor Department reported Friday. This marked the largest monthly decline in wholesale prices since April 2003. Excluding food and energy costs, the core producer price index rose 0.1 percent last month. The decline in the overall PPI was much greater than expected. Economists had been anticipating that December's PPI would fall 0.1 percent and that the core rate would rise 0.2 percent. Over the past year, the PPI has risen at a clip of 4.1 percent, up slightly from a 4.0 percent gain in 2003. This marked the highest annual increase in the PPI since 1990
The core rate rose 2.2 percent over the past year, compared with a 1.0 percent gain in 2003. This is the sharpest annual increase since 1998.
Further back in the production cycle, crude goods prices rose 18.0 percent in 2004, off from a 19.5 percent gain in 2003. Intermediate goods prices increased 9.1 percent in 2004, the largest gain since 1980. This follows a 3.9 percent gain in the previous year
In December, energy prices fell 4.0 percent, the largest monthly drop since April 2003. Gasoline prices fell 11.1 percent, while residential natural-gas prices dropped 1.6 percent. Finished capital equipment prices rose 0.1 percent in December, bringing the annual increase to 2.4 percent. Unprocessed food prices inched up 0.1 percent in December after rising 0.4 percent in November |
