November producer prices up less than expected but up 3% for the year

Jan. 14 (UPI) — Wholesale inflation rose by 0.2% in November, slightly less than was projected, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports Wednesday.

The producer price index, a measure of the prices producers pay, was 0.1% shy of the Dow Jones projection for the month. However it was up 3% for the year, a percentage-point higher than the Federal Reserve’s 2% target inflation rate.

Without including trade services, core wholesale inflation was up 3.5% for the 12 months ending in November. It was the biggest increase for a 12-month period since the period ending in March.

Retail sales outpaced expectations, up 0.6% compared to the Dow Jones projection of 0.4%. Sales not including automobiles increased 0.5% compared to a 0.3% projection.

Wednesday’s report was significantly delayed due to the 43-day government shutdown that began on Oct 1. The BLS said survey responses were “within the normal range.” Future PPI data releases are expected to be affected by the government shutdown as well.

The PPI report for December has been rescheduled to release on Jan. 30.

A big contributor to the rising index for final goods in November was gas prices, accounting for half of the month’s increase. Gas prices were up 10.5%.

Processed goods experienced a 0.6% increase and unprocessed goods increased by 0.4%.

While indexes for services like outpatient care increased, wholesale prices on healthy, beauty and optical goods decreased by 4.3%.

Retail sales were up 0.6% in November, reaching 3.3% for the year.