The Producer Price Index for finished goods -- which measures prices received by domestic producers of goods and services -- increased a seasonally adjusted 0.3% for August, according to a Labor Department report (link opens as PDF) released today.
After July's producer prices stayed steady due largely to cheap natural gas, both food and energy pushed August's numbers higher. Analysts had slightly underestimated the increase, expecting a smaller 0.2% bump in prices.
Source: Labor Department
Diving deeper, energy was the main source of August's s price rise. Finished energy goods moved up 0.8% in price, due primarily to a 2.6% spike in gasoline prices. Finished food prices rose 0.6%, due largely to a whopping 26.9% jump in fresh and dry vegetables prices. Excluding these two more volatile goods, producer prices stayed steady for August, below analyst estimates of a 0.1% rise.
Moving back along the supply chain, prices for intermediate goods remained steady for a second straight month, while crude good prices dropped 2.7%.
