It looks like more inflation is in the pipeline.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday that the producer price index rose 1.3% from August to September, contributing to an annual wholesale inflation rate of 6.3%. The monthly increase was the largest since March 2022, during the pandemic-era price surge, and roughly twice as high as analysts had expected. The annual increase was the largest since December 2022.
The PPI measures prices recorded by domestic producers for their output, closely tracking wholesale prices. A big jump in the PPI indicates that retail prices will likely rise in the coming months as higher costs work their way through the economy.
The new data comes on the heels of a report Wednesday that annual consumer inflation was 3.7% in September — another unpleasant surprise for Americans struggling to make ends meet amid a multi-year inflationary wave.
“Another day, another hot inflation report,” Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, wrote on X. “Every category of business inflation was hot, even after stripping away energy costs. It's inevitable that companies will pass some of these costs along to consumers.”
Alex Pelle, senior U.S. economist at Mizuho Securities, said the report could push the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates again at its next meeting at the end of the month. “On the economic data alone, there is little reason for the Fed to hesitate,” Pelle wrote, per CNBC.
Consumers have nowhere to turn to escape the squeeze from one of the essential products of American life, said Michael Pearce, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. “Higher gas prices are beginning to bite because, unlike earlier in the year, there’s no offset this time around from fiscal policy,” he wrote in a note to clients, per CNN. “We estimate the cumulative additional spend on gasoline so far this year now outweighs the rise in tax refunds from a year ago.”
