The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released March 2019 Producer Price Indexes (PPI) today. The All commodities index increased 1.2% over the last month & rose by 0.9% over the last year on a seasonally unadjusted basis. Tobacco products, incl. stemmed & redried increased 2.8% between February – March ’19 & rose by 8.7% between March ’18 – ’19. Other wood products increased 1.8% over the last month & rose by 6.7% over the last year. Soft drinks increased 2.5% between February – March ’19 & rose by 5.7% between March ’18 – ’19. Iron and steel increased 1.2% over the last month & rose by 4.8% over the last year. Fluid power equipment increased 0.5% between February – March ’19 & rose by 4.0% between March ’18 – ’19. Metals and metal products increased 0.8% over the last month & rose by 3.9% over the last year. Dairy products increased 0.7% between February – March ’19 & rose by 3.5% between March ’18 – ’19. All averages are seasonally unadjusted (preliminary).
PPI Historical Inflation Averages through March 2019
Historical annual inflation rate averages through March ’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):
CPI v. PPI Supermarket Inflation Comparison through March 2019
The historical CPI v. PPI supermarket inflation spread is shown in the table below:
