A customer looks at meat products at a Safeway supermarket, a subsidiary of Albertsons, in Washington, D.C., in October 2022. January’s wholesale prices were up more than double the Dow Jones consensus estimate, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. File Photo by Michael Reynolds/EPA-EFE
January’s wholesale prices were up more than double the Dow Jones consensus estimate, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.
The producer price index for January showed final demand prices, excluding food and energy, increased 0.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis. The Dow Jones consensus estimated an increase of 0.3%.
This is an acceleration over December, which rose by 0.6%.
Friday’s report contradicts President Donald Trump’s claims of ending inflation as he presses the Federal Reserve to reduce interest rates.
For the 12 months ending in January, the wholesale price index for processed goods and services climbed 2.9%. It was the greatest increase for a 12-month period since December 2024. The rate remains higher than the Federal Reserve’s target 2% rate of inflation.
While services drove an overall increase in the producer price index in January, the index for goods fell by 0.3%. Food prices and energy costs, particularly gasoline, contributed greatly to the decrease. The index for gasoline dropped by 5.5%.
The overall seasonally-adjusted price that producers received for goods and services increased by 0.5%, also greater than December and November’s rates.
Chemicals and allied products such as pharmaceuticals, cleaning materials and agricultural chemicals, accounted for half of January’s increase in prices for services. These items increased 8.4%. Staffing services, rent and retail properties, legal services and airline passenger services also increased.
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks during a press conference after the weekly Republican Senate caucus luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
