After consumer prices rose, producer prices rose less than economists expected in March, providing some relief to analysts and suggesting that underlying inflation may still be easing. suggested.
The Labor Department’s Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 0.2% last month, lower than the expected 0.3%. The index rose 0.6% in February and 0.4% in January.
PPI rose 2.1% in the past 12 months on an unadjusted basis, accelerating from 1.6% in February and 1% in January. The consumer price index (CPI) rose at an annualized rate of 3.5% in March, leading to a sharp market decline on Wednesday.
“PPI is not as important as CPI. However, it has cooled down more than expected and is a little further away from yesterday’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) results,” Harvard economist Jason Furman wrote online Thursday morning. .
Diane Swonk, a commercial economist at accounting firm KPMG, said March’s PPI numbers are “not as ugly as the CPI, but they’re still not enough good news to prompt the Fed to cut rates as quickly as many expected.” Stated.
March’s increase was due to a 0.3% rise in service prices, while the goods index fell by 0.1%.
Former White House economist Ernie Tedeschi said auto insurance PPI prices, which had been one of the strongest in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), have cooled, rising 2.6% for the month, an annual increase of more than 22%. He pointed out that he did.
He said the economic slowdown boded well for the next Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) price index, another key inflation indicator.
“Car insurance in terms of PPI included in PCE was much lower than the month-on-month CPI in March, at 0.1% versus 2.6% for CPI. [about] Ten [basis points] “We have significantly reduced monthly core PCE for March compared to core CPI,” he wrote online.
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