The Producer Price Index, which measures inflation at the wholesale level, rose 8.6% in the 12 months before September, marking the largest single-year increase since the metric was created in 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Thursday.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that the Producer Price Index (PPI) decreased 0.5% in September compared to a 0.7% increase in August. The PPI is a measurement of inflation before prices reach consumers, according to the Associated Press.
The 8.6% increase for the year ending in September is a record spike, though the figure jumped 8.3% in the year ending in August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Meanwhile, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 0.4% in September, bringing the inflation indicator’s year-over-year increase to 5.4%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Wednesday. September’s year-over-year CPI figure is just a slight increase from August’s 5.3%.
Gasoline and food prices each increased by 1.2% in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Experts believe the overall inflation surge is due to pandemic-related labor shortages and supply chain problems throughout the economy, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“It looks like some of these supply-chain and inventory challenges are going to stick with us for a bit longer—at least through the end of this year,” Omair Sharif, founder of Inflation Insights LLC, told the WSJ.
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Thursday’s PPI report also showed wholesale core inflation, which excludes volatile categories like energy and food, increased by 0.2% in September and rose 6.8% over the last 12 months, according to the AP. Roughly 80% of the increase in wholesale prices resulted from a 1.3% spike in the price of final demand goods.
The wholesale prices for food increased 2% in September while energy prices increased 2.8%, the largest monthly increase since March.
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