July 2008 Producer Price Index Doubles Consensus

Producer Price Indexes -- July 2008

The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods advanced 1.2 percent (consensus 0.5) in July, seasonally adjusted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. This increase followed a 1.8-percent jump in June and a 1.4-percent rise in May. At the earlier stages of processing, prices received by manufacturers of intermediate goods moved up 2.7 percent in July compared with a 2.1-percent gain in the prior month, and the index for crude materials for further processing climbed 4.2 percent subsequent to a 3.7-percent increase in June.