The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released January 2019 Producer Price Indexes (PPI) today. The All commodities index decreased 1.7% over the last month & rose 0.4% over the last year on a seasonally unadjusted basis. Agricultural chemicals and chemical products increased 0.3% over the last month & rose 8.4% over the last year. Heating equipment increased 1.4% from December ’18 – January ’19 & rose 6.1% for the 12 months ended January ’19. Hardware increased 0.6% over the last month & rose 3.6% over the last year. Fabricated structural metal products rose 0.7% over the last month & increased 8.0% over the last year. Construction machinery and equipment increased 1.0% between December ’18 – January ’19 & rose 6.2% over the last year while General purpose machinery and equipment increased 0.7% over the last month & rose 4.2% over the last year. Household appliances rose 3.2% between December ’18 – January ’19 & increased 5.4% for the 12 months ended January ’19.
PPI Historical Inflation Averages
Historical annual inflation rate averages through January ’19 for all 2 and 3-digit PPI commodity groupings are listed below (capitalized category description denotes a Major BLS PPI Commodity Group i.e. IPIC pool):
January 2019 CPI v. PPI Supermarket Inflation Comparison
The historical CPI v. PPI supermarket inflation spread is shown in the table below:
