Prices charged by businesses for goods and services purchased in the U.S. rose 9.6 from a year ago in November, their highest annual pace in records going back nearly 11 years, the Labor Department said Tuesday.
The final demand goods component of the Producer Price Index rose 1.2 percent compared with October. Compared with 12-months earlier, prices are up 14.9 percent. Prices on the services side rose 0.7 percent during the month for a 7.1 percent 12-month increase.
The Producer Price Index, or PPI, measures the average movements of prices received by domestic producers for goods and services sold both in the U.S. and exported. The Consumer Price Index measures prices paid by U.S. households, excluding exports and including imports. Goods and services sold to households and businesses that are their expected end-users are known as “final demand.”
The PPI report also includes data on prices for intermediate demand, those goods and services sold to businesses expected to utilize them to make products for end-users. The report breaks down prices between four stages of production, with the earliest stages selling into the latter stages. Stage one is the furthest out in the production process while stage four is the last stage before goods are sold to businesses that distribute them for final demand.
Stripping out food, trade and energy prices, the final demand index increased 0.7 percent month over month. On a year-over-year basis, core producer prices increased 6.9 percent, the largest increase since August 2014.
Economists had forecast a monthly gain of 0.5 percent and a 12-month rise of 9.2 percent for the headline final demand figure. Core prices were expected to be up 0.4 percent on the month and 7.2 percent on the year.
Within intermediate demand in November, prices for processed goods moved up 1.5 percent and prices for unprocessed goods increased 4.8 percent. Prices for intermediate demand services rose 0.6 percent.
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