Producer Price up 5% in last year, this months 0.5% implies 6% in future

[papau]

Producer Price Gain Bigger Than Expected (0.5 % despite fall in oil price)


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&nci...

Producer Price Gain Bigger Than Expected

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. producer prices climbed an unexpectedly steep 0.5 percent last month as energy costs mounted despite a fall in oil prices, a government report showed on Friday. <snip?

Over the last 12 months, producer prices have risen 5.0 percent, the sharpest increase since the period ended December 1990. The gain largely reflects a steep rise in crude oil prices, which peaked at more than $55 a barrel in late October but have come down sharply since then. <snip>

Although the steep rise in energy prices has not fueled a widespread pickup in consumer prices, analysts and policymakers at the U.S. Federal Reserve (news - web sites) are watching closely to see if producers begin to pass along their higher costs to consumers. <snip>

The report showed some price pressures at early stages of production. Intermediate goods costs rose 0.8 percent last month, while crude goods prices shot up 8.7 percent largely due to a big spike in energy costs.

[spotbird]

1. If food were included in these figures it would look much worse.

The reason the Christmas shopping is so poor is that no one has any money left after energy and food.