PPI in December

The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods rose 0.9 percent in December 2005, seasonally adjusted. This increase followed a 0.7-percent decline in November and a 0.7-percent gain in October.

[Chart data—TXT]

The December upturn in finished goods prices was led by the index for energy goods, which climbed 3.1 percent after dropping 4.0 percent in the preceding month. Larger price increases for finished consumer foods and an upturn in the index for capital equipment also contributed to this turnaround.

By contrast, prices for finished consumer goods other than foods and energy moved up at a 0.1-percent rate in December, compared with a 0.2-percent increase in November.

From December 2004 to December 2005, prices for finished goods advanced 5.4 percent, as shown in the chart. This followed a 4.2-percent increase in 2004.

The index for finished energy goods climbed 23.9 percent in 2005, after moving up 13.4 percent in the preceding calendar year. Conversely, prices for finished goods other than foods and energy rose 1.7 percent in 2005, following a 2.3-percent gain in 2004. The finished consumer foods index also went up at a slower rate in 2005 than it had in the previous year—1.4 and 3.1 percent, respectively.

These data are from the BLS Producer Price Index program. To learn more, see "Producer Price Indexes -- December 2005" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 06-42. 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.