U.S. Producer Prices Leaped Again in March, Well Above Expectations
2022.04.13 15:47
By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com — U.S. producer prices surged again in March racing past expectations with their biggest monthly gain in 10 years.
The producer price index rose by 1.4%, compared to expectations for 1.1%. That took the annual rate of inflation for goods leaving U.S. factories to 9.2%. February’s data were also revised up to show an increase of 0.9%, from an initially reported 0.8%.
The data suggests that U.S. producers are still finding it relatively easy to pass on increases in costs for labor and raw materials, rather than accept any compression to their profit margins. Moreover, price increases weren’t confined to volatile elements such as food and energy. Even stripped of these, the ‘core PPI‘ index rose 1.0% on the month for the second time in three months, while the annual rate rose to 9.2% from 8.7%.
As such, they raise the pressure on the Federal Reserve to accelerate its planned tightening of monetary policy.
